LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



Shelf .„..Hi 

UNITED STATES OF AMEKICA. 



LIFE'S PROBLEMS 



HERE AND HEREAFTER 



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DEC 12 387 S 



BOSTON 
CUPPLES AND HUED 

94 BOTLSTON STREET 

1887 



Copyright, 1887, 
By Cupfles and Hurd. 



All Bights Reserved 



Wc\z P?gK* $arfc 



CONTENTS. 



Chap. Page. 

I. Prelude 1 

II. God 17 

III. Personality 31 

IV. Difficulties 45 

V. Immortality — The Scientific Argument . 55 

VI. Immortality — The Historical Argument . 67 

VII. The Spiritual World ...... 81 

VIII. Origin of the Spiritual World . 91 

IX. Other World Order 105 

X. Prospects .127 

XI. Fantasy 139 

XII. Results 153 

XIII. Immortal Youth 179 

XIV. Two in One 193 

XV. Evil 213 

XVI. Death of Little Children 233 

XVII. Providence 247 

XVIII. Prayer 263 

XIX. Paradox 291 

XX. Conclusion 313 



/ 



PREFATORY. 



This is not a sectarian book. 

The reader, no doubt, will find in it some 
things which savor of the dogmas of the sects, 
but it was not written in the interest of any sect 
or party. 

The subjects treated are, confessedly, among 
the most difficult, and it is not claimed that the 
discussion of any one of them is exhaustive. 
The aim has simply been to blaze a path through 
a very intricate forest for the benefit of future 
explorers. 

Whatever its faults, the book is the concrete 
result of a very busy and sincere life experience, 
and it is believed that it will meet the intellectual 
as well as the heart-wants of a large number of 
persons. 

If it shall aid the reader to a substantial faith 
in God, and to unshaken trust in His providence ; 



vi PBEFA TOR Y. 

if it shall help him to wend his way through this 
world-labyrinth of ours more securely and cheer- 
fully than heretofore ; if it shall make the future 
beyond the veil more certain and attractive, — its 
end will be answered. 

No favor is asked for its errors. May they 
perish speedily. Its truths cannot perish, for 
they are immortal. 



LIFE'S PROBLEMS 



AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 



u Built not on secret doubt whitewashed with faith, 
But on conviction solid as the hills." 



If God reveal anything to you by any other instrument of 
His, he as ready to receive it as ever you were to receive any 
truth by my ministry ; for I am verily persuaded — I am very 
confident— the Lord hath more truth yet to break forth out of 
His holy Word. — John Robinson. — Add . to Pilgrim Fathers. 

Even now, after eighteen centuries of Christianity, we may 
be involved in some tremendous error, of which the Christianity 
of the future will make us ashamed.— Vinet. 

Each age of the Church has, as it were, turned over a new 
leaf in the Bible, and found a response to its own wants. We 
have a leaf still to turn — a leaf not the less new because it is so 
simple. — Dean Stanley. 



PRELUDE. 



Tiiue, he had his religion to seek and painfully shape to- 
gether for himself out of the abysses of conflicting disbelief and 
sham-belief, and bedlam delusions now filling the world as all 
men of reflection have; in this respect too, — more especially as 
his lot in the battle appointed for us was, if we can understand 
it, victory and not defeat, — he is an expressive emblem of his 
time, and an instructive possession to his contemporaries.— 
Carlyle in Life of Sterling. 

These are merely autobiographical touches which a future 
biographer may conveniently work into a portrait, and for 
which, perhaps he will thank me. — Jean Paul. 



CHAPTER L 



PB ELUDE. 

In one of the most mountainous of our North- 
ern States, there stands upon the summit of a 
very high hill an old-fashioned homestead, built 
by some venturesome and sturdy pioneer, now an 
hundred years ago. Its architecture is of the 
plainest description. There is nothing in the 
external appearance of the old house that would 
be likely to attract the attention of even the most 
curious and observing person passing that way. 
It is, nevertheless, a marked feature in a very 
extraordinary landscape. It stands in solitary 
loneliness upon the hill-top, like a sentinel upon 
the rampart of some old castle, overlooking the 
surrounding country miles and miles away. 

Eastward it looks out upon a huge old " forest 
primeval," in which the winter winds roar and 
howl at night as if it were the abode of unhappy 
spirits undergoing punishment. But in the warm 
summer-time its grotto-like depths are cool and 
fragrant with the perfume of leaves and wild- 
flowers, and the sunbeams sift down through the 



4 



LIFE'S PBOBLEMS. 



intricate branches of the stately old trees showers 
of gold all the day long. 

Westward it receives full in the face all the 
boisterous winds that blow, and sometimes rocks 
in the blast like a tall pine on a mountaintop. 
But the old house is firmly anchored on its rock 
foundation, and the storms of a century have left 
upon it but few dints of their blows. 

Northward the view is closed by a mighty bil- 
low of white granite, which time has failed to 
bronze. Upon the ridge of that granite billow 
the clouds go up and down, and the fogs creep 
along its sides, the sure precursors of storm or 
calm. 

Stretching away southward, hills succeed hills, 
like the successive swells of the ocean, until lost 
in the dim distance. When dressed in its winter 
garb, the landscape has the aspect of a frozen 
ocean, but in its summer robes it looks like a sea 
of deepest, purest emerald. 

The view from its western windows is of un- 
surpassed beauty and magnificence. Thirty 
miles away, as the bird flies, a chain of moun- 
tains, serrated at short intervals with peaks of 
granite that seem to support the blue dome that 
bends above them, lies along the "horizon from 
north to south, and completes the frame-work of a 
landscape that has few parallels. 

The immense basin inclosed by these majestic 



PEEL TIDE. 



5 



ramparts, is broken into a rugged miniature of 
its surroundings, but the hand of intelligent in- 
dustry is everywhere apparent. There are broad 
deep valleys and fair meadows, through which 
crystal streamlets and the larger " branches" 
speed with noisy babble, until they find repose in 
a lovely lake that lies hidden away beyond the 
green mountains. There are sunny slopes, and 
warm green nooks under the sheltering hills, 
dotted with the white houses and dull red barns 
of the farmers ; and in the early days of spring 
the earth is spread with a carpet more beautiful 
than any woven in the looms of the East. The 
prominent features of this highland landscape 
are masculine strength blended with exquisite 
touches of feminine loveliness, while its pervading 
atmosphere is unbroken serenity and peace. 

The old homestead upon the hilltop is fit resi- 
dence for day-dreamer, poet, artist, philosopher ; 
or for one who would commune with nature, and 
study its brightest and profoundest aspects. In 
that old homestead my childhood and youth were 
passed. 

Was it the natural result of such surroundings, 
and of the influences that sprang from them, 
that my thought-life began while I was yet but a 
child? Scientists assert that physical circum- 
stances control the human race ; that the material 
surroundings of one's birth-place determine the 



6 



LIFE'S PBOBLEMS. 



intellectual and moral characteristics of one's 
subsequent life. I know not if this be absolutely 
true ; but it is certain that my material environ- 
ment, together with the subtile influences that 
pervade a mountain land, had much to do with 
the shaping and peculiar hue of my physical and 
mental development. I was fond of poetry and 
eloquence ; and, strangely enough, of their antith- 
esis, metaphysics. Books were my constant com- 
panions, and the love of them an all-absorbing 
passion. I read with avidity whatever came in 
my way, and forgot nothing. 

But books were a rare commodity in the up- 
country in those early days. The few that were 
scattered about in the households of the farmers 
were mostly of a religious character, and seldom 
read. The book-store at my father's was slim 
indeed. First, and chief, was the large family 
Bible. Next, in importance, the New Eng- 
land Primer, including the Shorter Cate- 
chism. And then, without much esteem in the 
family, The Works of Josephus, and a specula- 
tive treatise on the ancient mound-builders of the 
West. 

As a matter of course I was thorougly indoc- 
trinated in the Catechism, and at one time could 
repeat its entire contents from memory. But the 
Catechism was, in the main, incidental and subor- 
dinate. Bible-reading was regarded as "the 



PB ELUDE. 



7 



whole duty of man," and it was made a daily ex- 
ercise. In those guileless days the old book was 
almost my sole library — my vade-mecum, text- 
book in theology, history, story-book, romance. 
Together with my mother I read it through again 
and again. I have never been so familiar with 
the contents of any other book. 

My mother was a woman of more than average 
intelligence and spirituality. For a long time 
connected by membership with one of the old- 
time churches, she saw, — or what practically 
amounts to the same, — she believed she saw in 
the Bible the harsh and unpleasant features of 
her rigid creed. No proselytist nor propagandist, 
and quite content to let other people enjoy their 
religious opinions unmolested, her sense of duty, 
nevertheless, led her to impress her theological 
convictions as firmly as possible on my young 
and susceptible mind. My convictions of course 
followed my mother's, and in proportion to their 
intensity I was unhappy, and she was content. 
The antidote came through frequent Bible-read- 
ing, — always accompanied with a running fire 
of criticism, — and gradually, to my mother's 
great amazement, and for a season real grief, I 
was swung clear and quite away from the orbit 
of my ancestral faith. 

Truth broke upon me, at first, in vagueist out- 
line. I saw its out-posts and tent-fires far out on 



8 



LIFE'S PBOBLEMS. 



the verge of my spiritual night ; but what I saw 
and believed to be true, I embraced with youth- 
ful fervor ; and when, at length, my spiritual sky 
cleared I found myself in possession of an intel- 
ligible, if not an absolutely truthful " body of 
divinity." At the age of eighteen I was " in 
regular standing " in a christian pulpit. 

Like most young converts I was enthusiastic, 
zealous, and in downright earnest. It must not, 
however, be supposed that, at that early age, my 
path was altogether unobstructed with difficulties. 

I was essentially a student and thinker, and by 
great effort had achieved mental independence. 
I took nothing for granted. I would have proof, 
or I would have nothing. I was willing to wait 
for " light, more light ; " but with the light I had 
I tested remorselessly every article of my new 
faith. 

Naturally enough, therefore, it transpired very 
early in my ministry, that I was in difficulty 
with respect to certain doctrines, touching which 
clergymen of all denominations are supposed to 
be particularly luminous. What I believed, be- 
yond a rational doubt, 1 preached with all my 
might. Subjects involved in haze and uncertainty 
I let alone. If compelled to speak about them, I 
confined myself closely to the words of Scripture, 
and made no comment. 

My belief in God was beyond question. But 



PEEL TIDE. 



9 



precisely here, at the foundation of all possible 
rational faith, I encountered my first difficulty. 
My ideas of what God is were vague and unsatis- 
factory. What, I queried, is the mode of His 
existence ? Is God simply a principle — an un- 
thinking force universally diffused — akin to 
magnetism or electricity ? Is " His centre every- 
where, and His circumference nowhere ? " Or is 
God a person to whom we may properly apply 
words expressive of personality ? I did not know, 
and was honest enough not to pretend to know, 
nor did I try to conceal my perplexity from 
others. To those who questioned me on that 
subject I said, — " I cannot tell. Seek elsewhere. 
I have no answer that would satisfy you, or ought 
to satisfy you." It is true I might have evaded 
all question by an admonition not to be inquisi- 
tive about mysteries. I might have quoted text 
after text of Scripture. But of what avail? — 
especially with those whose intellectual percep- 
tions were as clear as my own, and who did not 
believe in texts. Silence, evidently was impera- 
tive; and to wait for more light to break in, 
wisdom. 

Another of my difficulties arose out of the 
doctrine of immortality. My belief in that doc- 
trine was as pronounced as my belief in God. 
Absolute proof that we shall live after death, — 
proof sufficient to convince or silence a candid 



10 



LIFE'S PBOBLEMS. 



sceptic, — I had not. My chief reliance was an 
ancient book that assumes to speak with author- 
ity. But the authority of the book had long 
been in question. From such a source I could 
derive nothing that science would consent to 
recognize for a single moment. I felt keenly the 
need of authority that should stand back of the 
book, interpret and confirm it. Of such author- 
ity I knew nothing. Nature, if an oracle, to me 
was veiled and speechless. Her symbols were 
mysterious hieroglyphs. Reason, too, by which 
all records and oracles must at last be tested, re- 
turned to my persistent appeal but the faintest 
inarticulate whisper. I groped for truth, if not 
in absolute darkness, at least in dim uncertain 
twilight. 

The logical result of this state of mental un- 
certainty, seriously interfered with the efficient 
performance of my clerical duties. I was often 
called to officiate at the bedside of the sick and 
dying, and at funerals ; but real, solid comfort I 
was unable to impart. In doubt myself, I was 
driven back upon the stereotyped and well-worn 
phraseology common on such occasions. Let us, 
I said, believe that we shall survive death, retain 
our personality, and meet and know each other 
again. Do not the spontaneity of love, the 
deathlessness of our affections, the intuition that 
is a part of our very being, intimate an hereafter 



PRELUDE. 



11 



and confirm the hope that we are immortal ? 
Have we not in the Bible "the sure word of testi- 
mony?" — and what need we more? Let us 
trust in God, and have faith that all that is dark 
and inscrutable here will ultimately be cleared up, 
and u the ways of God with man be justified." 

But what are words that embody only " a wish 
that is father to the thought?" If of avail to 
others, they were of no avail to me. My trouble 
was too deeply seated to readily yield to empirical 
treatment. I did not, moreover, fail to realize 
that my own fate was involved in any decision I 
might make, and I shrank with inexpressible 
horror from even the thought of annihilation ; 
nor could I calmly endure the prospective loss of 
my distinctive self-hood. I could not stifle the 
wish to survive death, and to be myself in all 
personal essentials. But for myself and for 
others I had nothing to urge but vague conjecture 
and unverified testimony. 

And here arose in my way yet another diffi- 
culty. If, indeed, man be immortal, if, essen- 
tially, man is a spirit, — what is spirit ? Is it 
something ? Or is it nothing ? 

Is spirit a real substantial entity, that, under 
certain conditions, may be seen, touched, felt and 
handled ? The popular idea of spirit is the exact 
reverse of this, — is as near the idea of nothing 
as well can be. But from this semi-nihilism I 



12 



LIFE'S PBOBLEMS. 



instinctively revolted. I could not abide the 
thought of my dear ones, and myself, 

" Made up of moon-beams floating dim, 
And wreathes of misty light." 

Much of the substantial joy of life comes from 
personal contact, — the warm pressure of the 
hand, — the earnest loving embrace. An im- 
mortality cold, cheerless and impalpable ; men, 
women, and children nothing but chilly and 
chilling shades, I could not endure even in antici- 
pation. I did not believe it, did not, could not 
preach it. When I touched upon this, and kin- 
dred subjects, I ran close along side of our best 
and warmest feelings. I spoke of immortals as 
real, palpable brothers and sisters, still aglow 
with warmth, radiant with love, and with hearts 
beating in full sympathy with ours. I did not 
pretend to prove this. I relied on unreasoning 
intuition, — on soul-sensing, that detects immor- 
tal realities and brings them near. With the 
majority of persons this seemed quite sufficient 
and conclusive, and no questions were asked. 

But the question of spirit correlatively involved 
another question. Is there a. substantial spirit- 
world, in which, after death, we shall abide, and 
find there a real and tangible home ? 

If I intimated that the word world necessarily 
means a world, with all that is necessary to con- 
stitute a world, I was sure to be met with the re- 



PBELUDE. 



18 



ply — "Heaven is a state, not a place." I was 
beset, too, with multitudinous questions touching 
its topography, dimensions, scenery and location 
in space. Does it resemble this old world of 
ours? Do the aged forever remain aged? Do 
infants forever remain infants ? Is union be- 
tween husband and wife perpetuated there ? Of 
course I was unable to answer these questions, 
and I dealt with them summarily — I cast them 
out. To the really sincere inquirer 1 said- — 
"Who knows? Who can know?" I had no 
proof to offer to others ; I had no proof for my- 
self, — proof that stood firmly on the feet of 
reason and fact. 

My professional duties compelled me to deal 
with yet another question — the perplexity and 
puzzle of all ages, — the problem of evil. Mothers 
assailed me with the question, — " Why is my 
child taken from me so soon, and other children 
spared- to grow up, become wicked, and curse the 
world? " I was asked to explain the fact of pre- 
mature death ; the stupendous fact that one half 
the human race die in infancy or childhood. 
Numerous other questions, arising out of the 
problem of evil, were thrust upon my attention, 
and I was asked to reconcile the facts in each 
case with the alleged wisdom, goodness, and love 
of Grod. 1 did not pretend that I was able to say 
anything in answer to these questions satisfactory 



14 



LIFE'S PBOBLEMS. 



to myself, or that ought to be satisfactory to 
others. Sometimes I felt that I must leave the 
ministry as a vocation incompatible with self-re- 
spect and true manhood. I was like a state's 
prisoner, with the prospect of confinement for 
life. But I was not in " solitary confinement," 
for I had many companions as firmly held in 
bonds of doubt as myself. 

At the age of twenty-four my mental perplexity 
reached a climax, and I was at the parting of the 
ways. The change that then came over me may 
be briefly told. 

Chance, as I then believed, drew my attention 
to certain psychological facts, and led up to a 
series of investigations that eventuated in the 
complete solution of my difficulties. Light broke 
in from unsuspected sources. Truth sprang from 
hitherto unknown springs. On purely rational 
and historical grounds my doubts were vanquished, 
and at last I was free — free to speak with the 
positiveness of absolute certainty — free to do my 
duty to man and to God. 

I did not gain this vantage-ground at a single 
bound. It was six long years before I could 
command the field of my difficulties and feel a 
sense of mastery. The mists rose slowly and dis- 
solved in the pure ether. But soon " every valley 
was exalted, every hill was brought low, the 
crooked was made straight, the rough places were 



PBELUDE. 



15 



made smooth," and no soul was ever more at rest 
" in Ashlu, at the pools of peace." It is true I 
saw, as all mortal men are fated to see, " through 
a glass darkly ; " but to this day the truth re- 
mains unshaken and unimpaired, — I saw ! 

Perfectly aware that there are many clergymen, 
and thousands of men and women, in and outside 
of the churches, who are involved in doubts, diffi- 
culties, and perplexities similar to those that once 
enthralled me and made me wretched, I propose 
to set forth in the pages following the way and 
the means by which my doubts were silenced, 
difficulties overcome, perplexities cleared up, and 
I was made to know that God is, that man is im- 
mortal, that our personality permanently endures, 
that a real substantial world awaits each man, 
woman, and child at death, that we shall know 
each other and ultimately be united as one fam- 
ily, that times, seasons, and events flow in the 
harmonious order of an ever beneficent Providence 
that reigns supremely and works solely for human 
good. It is a large part of my purpose to make 
the reader an independent thinker and investiga- 
tor, by simply giving him the key, and showing 
him the way. 

Let it be borne in mind through every stage of 
the discussions following, that the author is truth- 
fully telling his own unvarnished story and that the 
whole may be taken as a sort of modern Pilgrim's 



16 



LIFE'S PBOBLEMS. 



Progress from the city of Doubt, through the 
slough of Difficulty, and from thence on and up 
to the summit of the Celestial Mountains. 



GOD. 



I had rather believe all the Fables in the Legend, and the 
Talmud, and the Alkoran, than that this wonderful Frame is 
without a mind.— Lord Bacon. 

Let the feeling of absolute dependence come into full activity 
and there is at length clear before us the Absolute Being on 
whom we may depend.— J. D. Morell. 

Knowing that soul, who is wise, young, undecaying, free from 
desire, self-existent, immortal, satisfied with the essence of 
good and in no respect imperfect, a man does not dread death. 
Atharva Veda. 



CHAPTER II. 



GOD. 

Let us begin at the beginning. Is there a self- 
existing, self-acting, intelligent, supreme first 
cause, whom all peoples have agreed in calling 
God? 

When at the climax of my doubts and diffi- 
culties, and entertaining serious thoughts of aban- 
doning the ministry, a legal friend put into my 
hand a little book, in which the author described 
his conversion from atheistic infidelity to rational 
Christianity, and the means by which it was ac- 
complished. I knew the author as one of the 
most acute of living metaphysicians, and for a 
long time an avowed and well known sceptic. 
His undoubted intellectual ability, together with 
the fact that he had publicly renounced infidelity, 
was sufficient assurance that what he had written 
would be worth reading. My friend, who was 
fully aware of my doubts, was confident that the 
little book would, at least, put me in possession 
of a clue to a rational faith. He well knew, 
from personal experience, the need of one hon- 
estly beset with doubt. 



20 



LIFE'S PBOBLE3IS. 



Franklin Gale, — for such was the name of my 
friend, — was a man of exceptionally fine mental 
and moral quality. He was graduated at one of 
our oldest colleges with the highest honors; 
studied "evangelical theology, and entered the 
ministry." Falling into doubt, and subsequently 
into absolute unbelief, he left the ministry and 
the church and adopted as a permanent profession 
the practice of the law. 

His mental ability was of the first order, and 
he did not rest at ease in sheer negation. Again, 
and again, he fought over the field of christian 
evidences ; nor did he give up the contest until 
he had rounded from his sceptical perturbation 
back into the true orbit of christian faith. Dur- 
ing his sceptical cruise he had thrown overboard 
much heavy and useless theological lumber, 
which, from very density, sank to unknown 
depths and was never recovered ; but to the end 
of his days — days brimmed with joy and peace 
in believing — he rejoiced at his riddance from 
doubt, on the one hand, and on the other, from 
teasing, unrestful dogma. His last supreme hour 
was the happiest hour of his life. 

My knowledge of Franklin Gale gave me con- 
fidence in his judgment ; and so thanking him for 
the little book, I took it home, and in the seclu- 
sion of my study read it with avidity from begin- 
ning to end. The effect it produced on my mind 



G OD. 



21 



was immediate and conclusive. I derived from 
its perusal the first purely rational and logical 
proof, I had then seen of the existence of an in- 
telligent first cause. Years have passed away, 
and I have read much, and thought more ; but 
the argument that then convinced me, stands 
to-day unanswerable and unrivalled. I shall en- 
deavor to lay the substance of it, with reinforce- 
ments of my own, before the reader. 

But first, let me premise with regard to what 
then seemed to me a serious weakness in the argu- 
ment based on the appearance of intelligence and 
design in nature, so ably stated by Paley. The 
difficulty with Paley' s argument is that it fails to 
terminate. The presence of intelligence and de- 
sign in nature, undoubtedly necessitates the ad- 
mission that nature is the work of an intelligent 
designer ; but it does not prove that the designer 
now exists, or that he was, or is, First Cause. 

Nor is this the only defect in Paley's argu- 
ment. The stream cannot rise higher than its 
fountain. There can be nothing in the effect 
which is not first in the cause. If the presence 
of intelligence and design in the effect, is proof of 
an intelligent and designing cause back of the 
effect, then the presence of intelligence and de- 
sign in the cause must be proof of a cause still 
further back, and nothing is proved as to a First 
Cause ! 



22 



LIFE'S PROBLEMS. 



If it be assumed that the phenomena of intelli- 
gence and design exist in the First Cause un- 
caused, then the fatal admission must be made 
that they can exist uncaused ; and the fact of 
their presence in nature is no proof of a First 
Cause ! 

Paley's argument is simply a revolving chain, 
with a perpetually recurring proposition, — a 
well, into which innumerable buckets are let 
down, but nothing adequate and satisfactory 
drawn up. 

The argument that brought the relief I needed, 
was in no respect like Paley's. It was purely 
metaphysical ; but it lay easily and luminously 
within the compass of my thought. I, at least, 
understood it, and was unable to resist its force. 
I shall endeavor to make it equally easy and lu- 
minous to the reader. It may be stated in a 
series of self-evident propositions : 

The human mind is so constituted that it is 
compelled to believe that what is, is. 

And it is compelled to believe that what is, is 
something, and not nothing. 

In all objects which we see, we recognize some- 
thing as the cause of their existence, and without 
which they would not be. 

We are compelled to believe that something is 
in all forms and substances, that it is neither the 
form nor the substance, but which operates and 
manifests itself through them. 



G OD. 



23 



Something, for example, produces the tree, 
leaves, flowers, fruit, fragrance ; but that which 
produces is not the thing produced. 

Compelled to give it a name, we sometimes call 
it Life, Essence, Spirit ; but we always distinguish 
between it, and its external form and substance. 

If we call it Spirit, we know what we mean, 
and are understood by others ; though we might 
not be able to clearly define our meaning. In 
common usage the word has various applications : 
the spirit of nature, the spirit of the universe, 
the spirit of wine, the spirit of truth, the spirit of 
the law, the spirit of man, " the letter killeth, 
but the spirit giveth life." In these uses of the 
word spirit, we mean the Reality of the thing ; 
that which constitutes its essence, and makes it 
what it is. And this Reality we believe to be in 
everything. 

And to our understanding it is always the 
thing ; that is to say the essential and real thing. 
We distinguish readily between substance and 
and spirit, — or between substance and life — be- 
tween what we see and comprehend, and between 
what we do not see and cannot comprehend, but 
the existence of which we are compelled to believe 
in and acknowledge. 

The substance of a man is what we can see, 
handle, dissect, analyze ; but the spirit of a man is 
something we cannot see, handle, dissect nor 



24 



LIFE'S PBOBLEMS. 



analyze. It is thoroughly distinguished from the 
gross and tangible elements of his bodily form. 

Take this from man, and at once he ceases to 
be man. He has lost that which constitutes him 
man, and keeps him man under all circumstances, 
and in spite of moral or physiological changes and 
modifications. In this spirit we have the ground 
and substance of man ; and which, if lost, all is 
lost. 

In the material universe, science recognizes 
something that sustains and keeps it what it is. 
It also recognizes the fact that if this something 
were withdrawn, it would cease to be what it is. 
In other words it would cease to be. 

What is that which 

" Warms in the sun, refreshes in the breeze, 
Glows in the stars, and blossoms from the trees, 
Lives through all life, extends through all extent, 
Spreads undivided, operates unspent ? " 

It is the Spirit of the universe. It is its Life. 
It is its living Force. It is the Ground of its 
substance, and of all that is. It is the Life of all 
that is. It is that mysterious something that 
men, in every age, have agreed in calling GOD. 

Spirit, therefore, is the one thing real and sub- 
stantial, in opposition to the unreal, perishable, 
and imaginary. It is Reality — Life — Cause — 
Being. • In light, it is the Light ; in life, it is the 



GOD. 



25 



Life ; in soul, it is the Soul ; in reason, it is the 
Reason ; in truth, it is the Truth ; in cause, it is the 
Cause ; in the beautiful, it is Beauty ; in goodness, 
it is the Good ; in love, it is Love ; — everywhere, 
wherever seen or felt, it is God ! 

Wherever we attain to that which really and 
truly exists, that has an absolute living force, we 
attain to God. In all Reality we find God. 
And being Reality it is Substance ; unless we 
are prepared to prove that something came 
from nothing, and that something is no substance ! 
This, of course, reason, experience, and science 
deny. 

The conception and acknowledgment, there- 
fore, of an absolute Reality, or its equivalent ab- 
solute Substance, — a substance containing in 
itself the cause and grounds of all minor sub- 
stance, — is an imperative necessity of the reason. 

We are compelled, for example, to entertain 
the idea of the true. We must believe that some- 
thing is true ; and therefore believe in the true in 
itself. The true in itself must be universally and 
eternally true ; for if, under any condition, it 
would not be true in itself, then its truth would 
depend on conditions ; and the true in itself would 
be proved to be not true in itself ! 

When we say a thing is true, we mean that it 
is what it purports to be, — that it exists, — that 
it is reality, and therefore substance. If we ad- 



26 



LIFE'S PBOBLEMS. 



mit the existence of the true in itself, we must 
admit the existence of reality in itself, and hence 
of substance in itself, — that is, a substance that 
requires no external conditions in order to be a 
substance, — that is always and everywhere sub- 
stance, containing in itself the grounds of its own 
existence, — in other words, an absolute sub- 
stance. 

The absolute substance, therefore, must be un- 
created, independent, and necessary. If created 
it would be dependent, and not absolute ; and its 
cause would have to be sought for further back. 

Moreover, the absolute substance must neces- 
sarily be one. Two absolutes would be as great 
an absurdity as two infinites, or two Almighties. 

This absolute Something that we are compelled 
to recognize and acknowledge in everything as 
absolute Keality, and therefore absolute Sub- 
stance ; that is one and can exist only in Unity ; 
must also be absolute Cause ; for it is self-evident 
that there can be no cause without substance ; un- 
less we agree that nothing is capable of producing 
something ; which, to say the least, is manifestly 
absurd. 

The absolute Cause, therefore, must be first 
cause ; and the demonstration of such Cause is 
here effected, and is complete. 

But the demonstration of a First Cause does 
not fully meet the demands of the reason. The 



GOD. 



27 



inquiry must be pushed a step further. Is the 
absolute First Cause intelligent ; or is it a mere 
blind, unthinking, fatal cause ? It is intelligent, 
most certainly. What is the chief characteristic 
of reason ? It is intelligence. All we know we 
we know by virtue of the reason. On its authority 
we affirm that we exist ; that the external world 
exists. It speaks with authority, and we obey 
its mandates almost instinctively. On its 
sole authority we acknowledge the relation of 
numbers, and of logical deductions from admitted 
premises. It is not infallible ; but its imperfec- 
tion, in certain cases, arises from circumstances, 
and not from any imperfection in itself. 

Nay more : Reason is an independent author- 
ity. We cannot control it. It says two and two 
are four ; and we cannot make it say otherwise. 
What is just and true now, it says was always 
just and true. Its conceptions are not relative 
and dependent, and therefore temporary ; but in- 
dependent, necessary, and eternal. It is Reality. 
It is the highest reality we know ; and hence is 
identical with the sole and absolute Cause. 

The chief characteristic of reason, — yea, its 
very essence, — is, therefore, intelligence. The 
absolute reason must be absolute intelligence ; and 
God is not a mere blind unthinking force, but a 
self -existent, independent, necessary, intelligent 
first CAUSE. In this great fact we discover the 



28 



LIFE'S PROBLEMS. 



grounds of the reason, intelligence, and design 
that appear everywhere in creation. 

In man, reason and intelligence are subject to 
human conditions ; but they reveal themselves as 
stretching beyond the bounds of time and space, 
and they assure us that though we now " see 
through a glass darkly " we shall sometime " see 
face to face." Not, we dare say, the eternal 
realities without limit, but with ever increasing 
insight, as the law of ceaseless progress, and, 
therefore, of ceaseless growth, bears us on. 

The imperfection of reason in ourselves, is 
solved by the fact that we are but receptacles of 
reason, as we are of life ; and in no sense self-ex- 
istent, self-supporting, nor in any strict sense in- 
dependent. In every condition of life, and in our 
very innermost, we are, like all other living things, 
dependent. Every hour of our life, and of the 
life of everything that lives, the most ancient 
testimony receives verification : — " In Him we 
live, move, and have our being : " " The eternal 
God is our refuge, and underneath are the ever- 
lasting arms ! " 

I saw no way of evading this reasoning then ; 
and I see no way of evading- it, now. Unlike 
Paley's the argument terminates. It is impossible 
to go beyond or back of the result ; and it is quite 
as impossible to escape the result. The proof of 
the existence of God, — of an absolute, intelli- 



GOD. 



29 



gent, self -willing, independent First Cause, — of 
a cause adequate to produce all the phenomena 
of the universe, and the universe itself, — is seen 
to be stored in what man is compelled to see, 
know, and acknowledge. It lies all around us 
and within us, and is as much a part of our con- 
sciousness as our personality. 

The first great step toward a rational faith was 
thus taken, — taken successfully and irreversibly. 
The foundation stone was laid. Here, I said, is 
something solid and imperishable, and here I will 
stand and abide. From henceforth I was able to 
assert the existence of God with honest convic- 
tion. I am sure that those who heard me were 
profoundly impressed that I believed what 1 said. 

But I could not pause at the goal I had won. 
Other problems, of equal importance to the one I 
had solved, awaited solution. I was confronted 
with the problem of Personality. Is the intelli- 
gent First Cause, I queried, so identified with 
matter as to be inseparable from matter ? 

In other words, — If matter were disorganized, 
would it effect the disorganization of the First 
Cause ? 

If, for instance, a star were burned up, — as it 
is said by astronomers several have been, — would 
such disaster diminish the magnitude or preva- 
lence of the First Cause ? 

Or is the First Cause an absolute, independent, 



30 



LIFE'S PBOBLEMS. 



organic unity, and therefore personality, that no 
disaster in time or space can affect ? 

Questions, such as these, were inevitable, and 
they brought me face to face with Material- 
istic Pantheism. How I dealt with the problem 
they involve, will be told in detail in the next 
chapter, 



PERSONALITY. 



The Pantheistic speculations which are directed against the 

personality of God, are equally conclusive, if they be conclu- 
sive at all, against the personality of man ; for they run counter 
to the intuitive knowledge of the human mind; and they cannot 
be embraced without doing violence to some of our clearest 
and surest convictions. — Prof. James Buchanan, L. L. T>. 

Next looking around, the primeval Being saw nothing but 
himself ; and he first said, " I am I." Therefore his name was I : 
and thence even now, when called, a man first answers, " It is 
I; " and then declares any other name that appertains to him, 
— Vrihad aranyaca. 



CHAPTER III. 



PEBSONALITY. 

In spite of learned definitions of spirit, by the 
theologians, and the philosophers, and of such 
ponderous words as " anthropomorphism ; " in 
spite of solemn warnings against materializing 
Deity, I felt profoundly the inadequacy of both 
the theological and philosophical conception of 
God. The creeds I found reticent, and inconclu- 
sive; apparently afraid of shadows, and even 
absurd. The conception of a strictly personal 
first cause does not appear in any one of them. 
It is true that they stoutly assert that God is a^ 
" person;" and they contain articles labeled, 
" Personality of God ; " but the terms in which 
this assertion is made are vague and misleading. 

The good men who framed the creeds, evidently 
groped blindly after the truth an interior instinct 
compelled them to acknowledge ; but their inabil- 
ity to put what they dimly perceived into plain 
unmisleading English, is painfully apparent. 
They simply succeeded in furnishing an admira- 
ble illustration of a possible combination of words 



34 



LIFE'S PBOBLEMS. 



without adequate sense. The specimens follow- 
ing, selected from the leading creeds, both Catho- 
lic and Protestant, are in point : 

Roman Catholic : " God is everywhere. He 
is pure spirit, having no body." 

Episcopal : " God is without body or parts." 

Baptist : " God is inexpressible in glory and 
holiness." 

Methodist : " God is without body or parts." 

Presbyterian: "God is pure spirit, invisible, 
without body, parts, or passions ; immense, eter- 
nal, incomprehensible." 

From these definitions I found it impossible to 
derive the personality of God, in any true and 
comprehensible sense belonging to the word per- 
sonality. It was instantly evident, that anything 
"without body, parts, or passions" is no person, and 
has not even the slightest claim to personality ; 
yea, more : it must be classed with the inorganic, 
intangible, unthinking and unfeeling forces of 
nature. Such a Being, if indeed such a Being 
were possible, would be not only " unknowable," 
but absolutely unthinkable ! It is safe to say no 
thoughtful person was ever satisfied with these 
definitions. 

Turning from the theologians to the metaphysi- 
cal philosophers, it was soon made evident that I 



PEBSONALITY. 



35 



would fare no better. They, too, were struggling 
with difficulties they could not overcome, and 
their intellectual travail seemed simply painful. 
Their attempts to define God are melancholy 
failures. The specimens following will suffice to 
show that the philosophers are not helpful guides 
to one seeking after a personal God : 

Hegel : " God is the eternal movement of the 
universal, ever raising itself to a subject, which 
first of all in the subject comes to objectivity, and 
accordingly absorbs the subject in its abstract in- 
dividuality." 

Fichte : " The only God we can affirm is sim- 
ply the idea of moral order. Every precise 
notion we form of God must be an idol. To have 
an idea of God is to limit him." 

Schelling : " God, before the existence of this 
world, is the undeveloped impersonal essence 
from which all things proceed." 

Leibnitz : " The universe is a system of monads 
— ie : ultimate atoms." " Some are in a state of 
stupor, as those which compose material objects ; 
others are raised to a complete state of appercep- 
tion or consciousness, forming the souls of men 
when clear and distinct, but the souls of animals 
when indistinct. God is the absolute and origi- 
nal monad, from which all the rest have their 
origin." 



36 



LIFE'S PROBLEMS. 



Mansel: 44 The conception of the Absolute and 
Infinite, from whatever side we view it, is encom- 
passed with contradictions. There is a contra- 
diction in conceiving it as one ; and there is a 
contradiction in conceiving it as many. There is 
a contradiction in conceiving it as personal ; and 
a contradiction in conceiving it as impersonal. It 
cannot without contradiction be conceived of as 
active : nor without equal contradiction be repre- 
sented as inactive. It cannot be conceived as the 
sum of all existence ; nor yet can it be conceived 
as a part only ! " 

Sir William Hamilton: 4 4 The Absolute is 
conceived merely by a negation of conceivability ! " 

Herbert Spencer : 44 It is alike our highest 
wisdom, and our highest duty to regard that 
through which all things exist, as The Unknow- 
able." 

It would not be difficult to multiply similar 
definitions indefinitely; but to what purpose? 
They are denials, if not of God himself, at least 
of his personality ; although it must be confessed 
that their chief characteristic is fog ! That those 
profound men had a clear idea of what they were 
writing about, may reasonably be doubted. 

What then ? I asked. Have I discovered an in- 
telligent, absolute Something, 4 4 without body, form, 
or parts," — an 44 undeveloped essence, and imper- 



PEBSONALITY. 



87 



sonal," — an " eternal movement of the universal," 
— a " contradiction, " — a great " unknowable, " 
of which it is impossible to even think? And 
is this all that the demonstration of the exis- 
tence of an intelligent first cause amounts to? 
I took up again the argument of the demonstra- 
tion, and sought through its several stages for the 
solution I desired. I felt convinced that it must 
be lodged, somewhere, among the strong links of 
its development. Nor was I mistaken. I was 
not long in making the discovery, that the fact 
that God is an independent reality, an intelligent 
first cause, logically involves an admission of his 
personality. Thus : 

1. First cause, he is independent ; and being 
independent he is necessarily free. He cannot 
be coerced. He acts because he chooses to 
act. 

2. He is therefore possessed of will, and is 
no blind unintelligent actor. In him the ele- 
ments of the reason, of the understanding, of con- 
sciousness, are absolute. He knows that he acts, 
and why he acts, and therefore acts with purpose, 
design, and plan. 

3. Are not these the elements of the most per- 
fect personality ? Must not a being thus con- 
ditioned, possess personality in the highest degree ? 
It is impossible to think of the attributes contained 



38 



LIFE'S PROBLEMS. 



in the absolute first cause, without perceiving that 
this follows as a matter of course. 

4. Moreover, whatever argument or propo- 
sition be urged against the personality of God, I 
perceived must be equally conclusive against the 
personality of man. What proof have we of our 
own personality? The evidence of our senses* 
How do we know that they are not delusive ? 
The proof of our personality lies in the intuitive 
knowledge of the human mind, and it cannot be 
resisted without doing violence to some of our 
clearest and surest convictions. We are conscious 
of being intelligent, thinking, self -willing, design- 
ing, and, to a limited extent, free-acting beings ; 
and nothing but an act of Deity can deprive us 
of this conviction. In other words, we are con- 
scious of our personality. The proof by which 
we arrive at this conclusion is precisely the 
proof, and of equal value, of the personality of 
God. 

5. I found, too, that a species of fatality at- 
tends the proper use of language, and compels 
us, consciously or unconsciously, when we speak 
of God, to acknowledge that he is a person. This 
is especially true when we attempt to describe 
Him. We are compelled to use such terms as 
describe the personality of a man, viz : He — Him 
— His — Thy— Thine — Thou— Whom — Who. 
A description of God, with these terms left out, 



PEBSONALITY. 



39 



would be more amusing, we dare say, than in- 
structive. Nor would the result be essentially 
different if only words expressive of the neuter 
gender were used. The idea of personality would 
still assert itself in any form of statement we 
might make. 

6. The same fact strikingly appears in all 
forms of rational prayer. We say, almost in- 
stinctively, — " Our Father who art in heaven," 
— " O thou eternal One," — " Divine Spirit, we 
would worship Thee," — and our thought is al- 
ways fixed on a personal God who sees, hears, 
feels, and who can answer our prayer. Were 
it otherwise, prayer would be meaningless, and 
something worse than a farce ! 

7. The historical fact of worship may also be 
cited as proof of the Divine personality. In some 
form worship has always been universal, and in- 
variably addressed to a personal God. The ab- 
surdity of addressing worship to anything else, is 
apparent. Should we say, — "O great law of 
gravitation, have mercy upon us miserable sin- 
ners ? " Or, — " We adore, we worship thee, O 
universally diffused cohesion, electricity, magnet- 
ism, or whatever thou art?" — Or shall we call 
for help on a philosophical or mathematical prin- 
ciple or law ? Shall we address worship to one's 
self? Shall we apply terms of personality — 
Him — He — Thou — to nature ? — Whether as 



LIFE'S PBOBLEMS. 



Jehovah, Jove, or Brahm, it is a fact that all 
people of whom we have any accurate knowledge, 
have, from the remotest times, conceived of God 
and worshipped Him as a person. 

8. In the most refined and cultivated society 
to-day, the truth that God is a Father, and that 
man is his child, is gratefully received and ac- 
knowledged. The cultivated reason knows that 
we are not self -created, nor the creatures of a 
blind unthinking force. It perceives that the 
ground of the Fatherhood of God must, of neces- 
sity, lie in the fact that he has begotten a child 
" in his own image ; " and that, through all ranks 
of created creatures, paternity can have no other 
than a similar basis. All living creatures beget 
their kind ! This is a law to which there are no 
exceptions. It extends from the lowest forms of 
organized life up to God. But of all creatures 
God has made, man alone has the proud distinc- 
tion of bearing God's image. " In the image of 
God created he him ; male and female created he 
them ; and he called their name man." In this 
stupendous fact three immutable truths are 
lodged, — the personality of God — the immor- 
tality of the soul — and man's perpetual progress 
and development ! 

9. But I perceived that the personality of 
God is demonstrable on grounds of pure reason 
and exact science. We find in nature and in life 



PEB S ONALIT Y. 



41 



evidences of wisdom, goodness, power, and their 
practical applications ; and reason demands a 
personality around which to group them, and of 
which they are the out-flow. It is self-evident 
that these attributes, if they work at all, must 
work and manifest themselves from a personal 
stand-point. If they work intelligently, and 
with purpose, they must necessarily be under con- 
trol of intelligence and will. It is quite impossi- 
ble to conceive of them as attributes or elements 
of matter, or as attached to something " without 
body, parts, passions, or form." No amount of 
matter contains their reality, potentiality, or pos- 
sibility. We have no direct knowledge of any 
personality but our own, and the only positive 
knowledge we have of the attributes we ascribe to 
God, is derived from our experience of them in 
ourselves. We know that these attributes are at- 
tributes of personality, and nothing can make us 
say that they are not. 

10. "Humanity," says J. D. Morell, (Hist. 
Mod. Phil. p. 739.) " is not self-created. The 
reason we possess, is not constructed by us out of 
a state of unreason. If, therefore, it is implanted 
in us, then the Being who implanted it, must 
himself possess reason. If there is a law of right 
and wrong engraven on our constitution, there 
must have been a law-giver. All the appeals of 
innocence against unrighteous force, are appeals 



42 



LIFE'S PBOBLEMS. 



to an Eternal Justice, and all visions of moral 
purity are glimpses of the Infinite Excellence. 
In a word, if we see in nature, in mind, in his- 
tory ; if we see in every region of the Divine op- 
eration intelligence adapting means to an end ; 
if we see moral sanctions expressed and implied 
in the natural tendencies of human action ; if we 
see all this, morever, effected by a supreme intel- 
ligent power, that is, a Divine will ; then from 
the conception we have of intelligence, moral sen- 
timents, and will existing in our own personality, 
we are constrained to regard the Being from 
whom they all flowed, as Himself a personality in 
which all these attributes exist in their fullness 
and perfection." 

11. Mr. Morell once more. " Were we re- 
quired to point out the region in which the whole 
argument is best concentrated, we should refer to 
man, as hiiftself a living embodiment of all the 
evidences. If you want argument from design, 
then you see in the human frame the most perfect 
of all known organization. If you want the ar- 
gument from being, then man, in his conscious 
dependence, has the clearest conviction of that in- 
dependent and absolute one, on which his own 
being reposes. If you want the argument from 
reason and morals, then the human mind is the 
only known repository of both. Man is, in fact, 
a microcosm — a universe in himself ; and what- 



PEES ONALITT. 



43 



ever proof the whole universe affords, is involved 
in principle^ in man himself. With the image 
of God before us, who can doubt of the divine 
type? 9 ' 

12. Finally ; What the laws of thought and 
language compel ; what reason and science con- 
firm, the Scriptures positively assert. Man was 
created in the Divine image. Such is the state- 
ment of, perhaps, the oldest of most ancient books. 
In the New Testament it is affirmed of Christ : 
" He was the brightness of the Father's glory," 

— ie, moral likness, — " and the express image of 
His person! " Language cannot be made to as- 
sert personality in stronger terms. Deprived of 
its full force, or explained to mean something 
else, we are at once deprived of words to assert 
or define the personality of ourselves ; nay more, 

— of anything ! 

By such processes of fact and argument com- 
bined, the absolute first cause was identified to 
my understanding as a person, in the strictest 
sense of that word. Can the argument thus 
based be successfully met and refuted? It cer- 
tainly has the aspect of demonstration. It is 
certain that in the light of the conclusion to which 
I was led, my childhood's prayer received an illu- 
minated meaning : 



44 LIFE' 8 PBOBLEMS. 

" Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed 
be thy name ! " 

From henceforth I prayed rationally, confi- 
dently; not into the air, vaguely and experi- 
mentally ; not to myself ; but to Him " in whom 
we live, move, and have our being." 



DIFFICULTIES. 



Our creative faculty is vast, active, inexhaustible; but, in 
examining it closely, we see that it is only secondary, tempo- 
rary, dependent; that is to say, it owes its origin to a creative 
faculty which is superior, independent, and universal, of which 
it is but a feeble copy. Man, therefore, is a type which must 
have a prototype, and that prototype is God. — St. Martin* 



CHAPTER IV. 



DIFFICULTIES. 

I was by no means unaware of the difficulties 
involved in the assertion that God is a person, 
and at one time I felt them keenly. But what 
great truth, I said, is without difficulty? We 
know that we think, but who can unveil and ex- 
plain the subtile machinery of thought? Diffi- 
culties throng the pathway of the telescope and 
microcsope, and speechless mystery sits brooding 
in the laboratory of the scientist. The chief dif- 
ficulty attaching to the Divine Personality lies, I 
perceived, in the alleged Omniscience and Omni- 
presence ascribed to God. How can God be a 
person, and know all things, past, present, and 
future? How is it possible for a person to be 
everywhere present ? How can a person see all 
things, near and remote? Three facts came to 
my assistance: 

1. Our inability to answ r er every question 
suggested by a proposition, or to harmonize it 
with certain admitted facts, ought not to lead us 
to conclude against its truth. It may be true 
nevertheless. 



48 



LIFE'S PB0BLJE3IS. 



2. There are, of course, limits to all rational 
inquiry. Who made God ? Or, if God be de- 
nied, who made nature? Where does space be- 
gin, or end? Where does creation terminate? 
Precisely how and where had life its origin? 
Where did time begin? These are questions no 
man can answer. And yet we are compelled, by 
observation and experience, to believe in nature, 
space, life, creation, time, and indeed a multitude 
of things we can neither define, explore, nor ex- 
plain. The truth is, the length of our intellect- 
ual tether is determined, and beyond it we cannot 
go. Do our best and utmost, and still lying out- 
side of our circle of absolute knowledge are 
eternal verities that, in spite of our ignorance of 
causes, we are compelled to recognize and ac- 
knowledge. 

3. The existence of the absolute first cause 
demonstrated, its necessary attributes follow as a 
matter of course. To admit their existence, it is 
not indispensable that we be able to explain 
their modes of action. 

There was obviously, then, no intellectual ne- 
cessity to harmonize the omniscience and omni- 
presence of God with the fact of His personality. 
That they do harmonize, I saw may fairly be as- 
sumed ; but it did not suit my mood to assume 
anything. I was honestly in quest of truth, and 



DIFFICULTIES. 



49 



would have no patched up peace between myself 
and doubt. The problem involved I therefore 
attacked vigorously. My method of attack, and 
what came of it, the sequel will show. 

1. I saw clearly enough that the absolute 
reason and intelligence involve absolute knowl- 
edge. The first cause must, therefore, be omni- 
scient ; must know without limitation. So much, 
at least, is certain ; and Dr. Adam Clark was not 
wrong in saying that, with God there is neither 
foreknowledge nor af terknowledge ; but past, 
present, and future are fused in an eternal now. 

2. The omnipresence of God is necessarily as- 
sociated with His omniscience. Our own personal 
presence and knowledge are, to a certain extent, 
identical. We realize that we are in a particular 
place through the perception we have of the 
things belonging to the place, and which, in fact, 
constitute the place. I am mentally in Spain, by 
reason of the knowledge I Have of places and 
things in Spain. Knowing, associated with see- 
ing, is the only real clue we have to any place or 
person, or even to the fact of our own personal ex- 
istence. The limitation of these faculties, is the 
limitation of our presence. The first cause pos- 
sessed of absolute knowledge is, therefore, in the 
strictest and most realistic sense, everywhere 
present. 

3. It became obvious, moreover, that space is 



50 



LIFE'S PBOBLEMS. 



virtually annihilated to the extent that we see. 
A more perfect illustration, than that afforded by- 
ordinary vision, may be had in the historical fact 
of clairvoyance, or soul-seeing. A clairvoyant 
who describes far distant scenes and objects, may 
be said to be present with them. In that case 
bodily presence would not be meant. When we 
say God is everywhere present, we do not mean, 
necessarily, bodily presence. We mean that He 
sees everywhere at will, and knows every particu- 
lar of everything He sees. 

4. If it be true that, " Of Him, and through 
Him, and to Him are all things," — that "In 
Him we live, move, and have our being," — God 
must be as sensitive to the material universe, and 
to all things therein, as a man is sensitive to his 
material body, its functions, and its particular 
parts. 

5. Perfect health is physical and mental 
order. Disorder in any part of the body, is im- 
mediately reported to its spiritual occupant. The 
health of the universe is physical and spiritual 
order, and disorder in any part must be perceived 
and known to Him who is its Creator and all- 
pervading life. The soul, from its tribune the 
brain, sends its authority into every part of the 
system from the head to the extremities of the 
hands and the feet, and is present and sensitive 
in the minutest atom. Through the nerves of in- 



DIFFICULTIES. 



51 



voluntary motion, it flows into, keeps up the 
action, and executes the functions of those organs 
that are not under the immediate and special con- 
trol of the will. A wonderful provision is thus 
made for all necessary and incessant activity, and 
for all special emergencies. The heart, the 
lungs, the stomach, the liver, are independent of 
mental control. Through the nerves of volun- 
tary motion, the will, the soul's prime minister, 
controls certain physical sensations and the sub- 
tile phenomenon of thought. In like manner the 
absolute soul distributes its authority to the re- 
motest bounds of the universe, and to its minutest 
atoms ; determining their functions and their sev- 
eral parts in the universal plan. Over special 
emergencies, and moral results, preside the abso- 
lute reason and conscience ; the absolute will exe- 
cuting its authority " in the armies of heaven, 
and among the inhabitants of the earth," with such 
irresistible power that 66 none can stay his hand," 
and with such equity of justice that no one has 
right to say unto him, " What dost thou? " Our 
whole race now living, and the myriads that have 
passed away, are indeed but one vast body whose 
life is God. 

6. With God is no space ; nay, cannot be. 
The Absolute is not, and cannot be limited by 
space nor by time. If God were limited by 
space and time he would not be God. Withdraw 



52 



LIFE'S PROBLEMS. 



the idea of limitation of space and time from 
thought of God, and his omniscience and omni- 
presence follow as matter of course ; nor are they 
destructive of his absolute personality. 

7. Furthermore : He who is good, and, so to 
speak, resides in good, perceives and feels what- 
ever is evil. Likewise he who is in truth, and 
resides in truth, perceives and feels whatever is 
false. God is the infinite good and the infinite 
truth, and perceives therefore whatever is evil and 
false. He perceives, too, whatever is good and 
true, for these are in harmony with himself ; and 
order is the supreme mode of his being. 

8. In these definitions of God's omniscience 
and omnipresence, we must not overlook the im- 
portant truth that he is present, not only in all that 
is good, but also in all that is evil. His presence in 
good is necessary to its encouragement and preser- 
vation. His presence in evil is necessary to its 
moderation and final extinction. If he were 
withdrawn from good, all progress of good would 
at once cease. If he were withdrawn from evil, 
all conflict with evil would speedily terminate ; 
even imperfect order would be impossible, and 
chaos would ensue. With philosophical truth- 
fulness it is affirmed in the Psalms, — "The 
wrath of man shall praise the Lord ; and the re- 
mainder thereof," — that is, all evil which, if 
allowed, would not so result, — 44 He will restrain," 
— will not allow to transpire. 



DIFFICULTIES. 



53 



The statement here made is no more than an 
outline of the argument that solves the problem 
of ominscience and omnipresence in connection 
with the Divine personality ; but it will serve, I 
think, to give the thoughtful reader the necessary 
clue. In my own mind it set at rest the great 
problem. With one of old I said, — " Thou God 
seest me, and knowest my thoughts from afar 
off." " Whither shall I flee from thy presence? 
Whither shall I go from Thy spirit ? If I ascend 
into heaven, Thou art there. If I descend into 
sheol, Thou art there. If I take to myself the 
wings of the morning, and fly to the uttermost 
parts of the earth, there shall Thy spirit find me, 
and Thy hand hold me. Alike to Thee are the 
light and the darkness." The agonizing despair 
of Job troubled me no more, — u O that I 
knew where I might find Him ! " " Surely," I 
said, " God is in this place." " He is not far 
from every one of us. Haply, if we feel after 
Him we shall find Him, seeing that He giveth 
life and breath to all." 

My pathway now led from the Creator to the 
created. From searching after God, I went forth 
to investigate His works. 



IMMORTALITY. 



TEE SCIENTIFIC ARGUMENT. 



" It is very near the sea; I hear the waves. The light about 

the head is shining about me as I go ! " — The old, old fashion 
that came in with our first garments, and will last unchanged 
until our race has run its course, and the wide firmament is 
rolled up like a scroll. Oh! thank God for that older fashion 
yet, of Immortality. — Charles Dickens. 

This monument was erected by Jane, his widow, who, after 
long waiting, and sending many in search of him, herself de- 
parted to find him in the Realms of Life, July 18, 1875, aged 83 
years. — Dean Stanley: On Sir John Franklin's monument in 
Westminster Abbey. 



CHAPTER V. 



IMMOBTALITY. 
THE SCIENTIFIC ARGUMENT. 

I FOUND it difficult to sweep out into the broad 
field of the Creator's works novf lying before me ; 
for most of it, so I had been taught, was forbidden 
ground. The limits of investigation had been ar- 
rogantly staked out, and a notice was served on 
all investigators not to go beyond the lines. It 
was perilous, in those days, to engage in free and 
independent inquiry. 

But what proof, I asked, that should bar all 
further investigation, do theologians offer that 
man, made in God's image, is immortal ? Not a 
particle. Their chief reliance is historical proof 
derived from remote antiquity. It is true they 
profess to find corroborative evidence in nature, 
in instinct, in heart-longings; but they do not 
claim that such evidence is, of itself, sufficient or 
reliable. It is simply presumptive and corrobora- 
tive. The historical fact of the resurrection of 
Christ, together with certain promises of immor- 



58 



LIFE'S PBOBLEMS. 



tality recorded in the New Testament, are alone 
held to be conclusive. 

But, I queried, what shall be done with a man, 
like Theodore Parker? Parker questioned the 
veracity of the New Testament witnesses, and de- 
nied emphatically the alleged historical facts; 
especially the story of the resurrection of Christ. 
He repudiated, too, the stories of the miracles. 
How shall such a man be met, refuted, and con- 
vinced? The Bible, as ultimate and absolute 
authority he denies. He will have nothing to do 
with Bible-texts nor stories of the supernatural. 
It is true that Theodore Parker believed in man's 
immortality, but he derived his proofs chiefly 
from universal history and psychology. 

For myself, I believed in the Bible, and I was 
more than commonly familiar with its contents ; 
but I was profoundly impressed that the proof I 
sought must come, at least first of all, from other 
sources. In other words, the Bible must be 
authenticated by outside testimony. The evi- 
dence of an interested party is certain to be ruled 
out as inadmissable. The doubter must be met 
and refuted on his own chosen ground. 

I began the investigation, therefore, with a 
recognition of facts already established, and of a 
purely naturalistic character, I began with the 
fact that,— 



IMMORTALITY. 



59 



1. God is a Creator. He has created, and, 
undoubtedly, continues to create. 

2. God is a Creator because it is his proclivity 
to create. It is his legitimate function. He can 
do no otherwise. It is impossible to conceive of 
the free, intelligent, first cause, living in idleness 
and doing absolutely nothing. The creative act 
is spontaneous, unpremeditated ; as the bird sings, 
or as one often thinks and acts. It is not, there- 
fore, coerced action ; for God is superior to all ex- 
ternal influences. He controls, but cannot be 
controlled. He is impelled to create from causes 
wholly within himself. 

3. Creating from a necessity within himself, 
— as genius in art or music manifests itself, — 
what does God, — the Divine Genius of the uni- 
verse, — necessarily create? The answer is 
obvious ; — God reproduces himself in all orderly 
degrees below himself ; and himself, as nearly as 
the nature and order of things will allow, even to 
his minutest characteristics. He cannot repro- 
duce the Absolute, for that, manifestly, is impos- 
sible. But in all his works he makes apparent 
his own qualities ; and, in his supremest effort, he 
reproduces his own " image and likeness" in an 

IMMORTAL CHILD ! 

4. Is there not something strictly analogous 
to this manifestation of God, in the creative acts 
of man ? In other words, is not man an analogue 



60 



LIFE'S PROBLEMS. 



of his parent? The parallel is perfect in every 
particular ; for, as one of the heathen poets has 
said, " We are his offspring." Man, therefore, 
infuses his qualities, physical, intellectual, and 
moral, into whatever he does. He constructs to 
the measure of his skill and moral purpose. But 
though he build grandly, and surround himself 
with everything necessary to his comfort, and 
gratifying to his taste and culture ; though he ac- 
cumulate untold riches, he is never fully satisfied 
until he sees his own image and likeness repro- 
duced in his child. This is the unspeakable fe- 
licity to which he aspires. Lonely and sad is that 
house that is without children ! 

5. Now carry this reasoning over to God, and 
man immortal, created in God's " own image 
and likeness," is the necessary and unanswerable 
result. Put in the form of syllogism, the ar- 
gument would stand thus : 1. God is immortal. 
2. Man is God's child. 3. Man, therefore is im- 
mortal ! 

I am bold to say, that other than this there is 
neither solid ground nor absolute reason for im- 
mortality. All other grounds and reasons spring 
from this and are simply corroborative reinforce- 
ments. For it is self-evident that the essential 
reason for immortality must be found in God, if it 
be found anywhere. The predicate must be laid 
in immortality, if we would evolve immortality as 
the capital result. 



IMMORTALITY. 



61 



But here arose the inevitable question : Are all 
living creatures immortal because God made 
them ? The answer is, emphatically, no ! The 
reason is this : God is not fully developed m 
any one of them below man. The only creature 
that can justly claim this august distinction is 
man. I did not find it difficult to make this fact 
not only apparent but conclusive : 

1. It is a fixed law, to which there are no 
known exceptions, that the greatest of things, in 
order to be greatest, must begin in the least of 
things. Great results must have simple begin- 
nings. Both God and man observe this law. 
Everywhere, God has worked, and is working, 
through successive stages from the lowermost to 
the highermost ; from the least to the greatest ; 
from an atom to a world ; from the lowest forms 
of life to the highest and most perfect form, in 
man. 

2. His aim is an immortal child ; and to realize 
his aim he began on the lowermost round of the 
ladder. He began in things that are least. He 
could not begin and effect his child's existence in 
the sun ; for that, evidently, is not a fit theatre 
for human life. Intermediate steps, therefore, 
must be taken. The law of degrees must be 
steadfastly observed. Nebula is born of the sun, 
condensed into a world, and in due time, by 



62 



LIFE'S PBOBLEMS. 



Divine influx, the mineral kingdom is developed 
and established. It becomes the receptacle of 
living vitalizing forces to the full measure of its 
degree. 

3. Ages roll away, and the mineral kingdom 
has reached its limit of development. Another 
degree of Divine influx, using it as a base, evolves 
the vegetable kingdom. Life, in manifold forms 
of use and beauty, pervades it. It mantles in its 
flora, from the humblest tuft of moss to the mag- 
nificent Victoria Regina ; from the lowly fern to 
the storm-defying oak; from the unsavory and 
poisonous herb to the incarnations of loveliness 
and fragrance that blush in the gardens of June. 

4. Ages roll away, and the vegetable kingdom 
having ascended to its highest possible degree, 
the Divine influx, using the preceding kingdoms 
as a base, brings forth the animal kingdom. 
From the most rudimentary to its most perfect 
forms, from the worm in the dust to the monarch 
of the forest, the Divine process goes forward 
until full preparation is made for what is destined 
to prove the final stage of the creative work. All 
around, the horizon kindles with the lights of in- 
telligence, and there are intimations in heaven 
and earth that the advent of the heir and monarch 
of the world is at hand. 

5. Another flight of ages. Once more the 
Divine influx is felt, and the " child of God," — 



IMMOB TALITY. 



63 



the " image and likeness " of his Creator, — is 
born ; and immortality is triumphant ! 

6. He is not a continuation of protoplasm, nor 
of the monkey, nor of any mere animal form. He 
is the result of a distinct Divine influx. A de- 
gree in nature is not the continuation of some 
preceding degree. Though united to some pre- 
ceding or succeeding degree, it is distinct, and 
complete in itself. The yolk of an egg is not con- 
tinued into less and less yolk, till finally it be- 
comes albuminous matter ; nor does the albuminous 
matter become less and less albumen till it becomes 
shell ; but each degree in its development is dis- 
tinct from every other degree. 

7. Nor does the Divine influx cease to work 
in the degree below, on a higher degree being at- 
tained ; but as water runs through the channel it 
has made for itself, so the Divine influx runs 
through all the degrees it has established, as stages 
in the creative work ; and by excretory processes 
refines and perfects them. From first to last, 
the " survival of the fittest " is the unvarying- 
law. 

8. The kingdoms of nature, or degrees of 
creation, are each perfect in themselves ; but im- 
perfect, if regarded seperately as ends. In no 
animal is God to be seen " in his own image and 
likeness." No animal is endowed with His at- 
tributes. In man alone is God fully revealed. 



64 



LIFE'S PB OB L EMS. 



He stands at the head of all the kingdoms of 
nature, and contains in himself the qualities of 
them all. In him is the substance and atomic 
movement of the mineral kingdom ; the life of 
the vegetable kingdom ; the sensation and instinct 
of the animal kingdom ; and, in a degree belong- 
ing specifically to himself, intelligence and reason 
with all their kingly attributes and possibilities. 
He is endowed with conscience, that responds to 
his moral surroundings, and ultimately controls 
them ; with will, to execute the determinations of 
both reason and conscience ; and superadded to 
these, the jewelled prize of immortality ! 

9. There, is therefore, no immortality below 
man. Immortality is not achieved until God's 
child is born. No animal is in the " image and 
likeness" of God. No animal is a "child of 
God." No animal is immortal ! 

With man creation terminates. The creative 
act can go no further. The Absolute cannot go 
beyond itself! But God's child must and will 
progress forever, — forever striving to attain to 
the perfections of its infinite Father. Such is 
the irreversible law. 

The result here reached thrilled my whole be- 
ing with unspeakable joy. I was now able to 
"look through nature up to nature's God," and 
" feel my immortality o'ersweep all doubts, all 
fears," and give assurance of the long-sought- 
for truth, — " Thou liv'st forever ! " 



IM3I0B TALITY. 



65 



I regarded, and do regard, the foregoing argu- 
ment unanswerable, and convincing ; but, at the 
same time, I felt that I had no right to exclude 
from it the help of corroborative proof. It is 
seldom that one kind of evidence can be made to 
apply effectually to every case of doubt. But 
the field of corroborative proof is so vast, that I 
shall attempt to discuss but a singe section of it 
— and that only in outline — in the next chapter. 



IMMORTALITY. 



THE HISTORICAL ARGUMENT. 



That the dead are seen no more, I will not undertake to 
maintain against the concurrent testimony of all ages and all 
nations. There is no people, rude or unlearned, among whom 
apparitions of the dead are not related and believed. This 
opinion, which prevails as far as human nature is diffused, 
could become universal only by its truth. Those that never 
heard of one another would not have agreed in a tale which 
nothing but experience could make credible. That it is doubted 
by single cavilers, can very little weaken the general evidence; 
and some who deny it with their tongues confess it with their 
fears. — Dr. Johnson , in Basselas. 



CHAPTER VL 



IMMOBTALITY. 
THE HISTORICAL ARGUMENT. 

It is now beyond rational question that, as far 
back as we have any reliable account of man he 
has always believed that he would live after 
death. This belief characterizes all classes and 
conditions of men, remote or near, savage or civi- 
lized. Exceptional individual cases there may 
have been, and may be, but exceptional masses 
of men there are not. This significant fact has 
not failed to impress thinking men profoundly. 

How shall we account for this fact ? It cer- 
tainly is not traditionary. If traditionary, when 
and where did it originate ? Was it invented by 
a cunning priesthood ? Was there ever a priest- 
hood that did not owe its origin to a common 
belief in the supernatural? One might as well 
say that hunters and farmers invented food, and 
then imposed it upon mankind ! The truth is, 
belief in life after death is due to the influence of 
spirit upon spirit, as like attracts like ; to the 
influence of spiritual beings of another life upon 



70 



LIFE'S PB0BLEM8. 



the spirit of man in this life ; to the influences of 
the spiritual world upon this world ; and, above 
all, to the influence of the " Father of spirits " 
upon his child. 

In common with the lower orders of animals 
man is endowed with instinct. He knows what 
he wants, and how to procure it. He feels a 
ceaseless "longing after immortality," and he 
instinctively believes in it. The belief comes in 
answer to the need. He senses immortality — as 
the migratory bird senses the " gentle south ; " 
as the camel senses the spring and the oasis in 
the desert ; as the ox senses nutritious food 
and avoids the poisonous. The form in which 
the belief is held, is non-essential to the fact that 
it is instinctive. 

The tenacity and intensity of this primitive 
and instinctive belief, is due, in part, to an un- 
broken chain of experiences of its truth. In 
every age, and in every nation, there have been 
persons, male and female, young and old, educated 
and uneducated, who have borne steadfast testi- 
mony that they have seen, conversed with, and 
felt the influence of the departed. This is no 
new state of facts peculiar to modern spiritualism. 
The Old Testament and the New, the sacred 
books of all nations, universal history, ancient 
and modern folk-lore, the traditions of nearly 
every neighborhood and of every family, bear 



IMMORTALITY. 



71 



witness to these facts. Educated and well read 
people do not, as a rule, venture to deny them. 

Rev. Horace Bushnell in his singularly able 
book, Nature and the Supernatural, sets an ex- 
ample of honest courage worthy to be commended. 
Remarking on the prevalence of testimonies to 
supernatural appearances, he says : "Could they 
be collected and chronicled in their real multi- 
tude, what is now felt to be their strangeness 
would quite vanish away, and possibly they would 
even seem to recur, much as in the more ancient 
times of the world." And Mr. Bushnell cites 
many modern instances of healing, gift of 
tongues, prophecy, and spiritual sight ; and he 
boldly avows his belief in them. 

In the Spectator, No. 110, Addison records 
his opinion of those who admit, and of those who 
deny these facts : — "I think a person who is thus 
terrified with the imagination of ghosts and 
spectres much more reasonable than one who, 
contrary to the reports of all historians, sacred 
and profane, ancient and modern, and to the tradi- 
tions of all nations, thinks the appearance of 
spirits fabulous and groundless. Could not I 
give myself up to this general testimony of man- 
kind, I should to the relations of particular per- 
sons now living, and whom I cannot distrust in 
other matters of fact." 

Dr, Isaac Watts, in an essay on the state of- 



72 



LIFE'S PROBLEMS, 



the soul between death and the resurrection, 
bears similar testimony: 4< The multitude of nar- 
rations which we heard of, in all ages, of the ap- 
paritions of the spirits of persons departed thislife* 
can hardly be all delusions and falsehoods. Some 
of them have been affirmed to appear upon such 
great and important occasions as may be equal 
to such unusual events ; and several of these ac- 
counts have been attested by such witnesses of 
wisdom, prudence, and sagacity, under no dis- 
tempers of imagination, that they justly demand 
belief." 

Richard Baxter, in his Saintfs Everlasting 
Rest is equally emphatic : — 44 1 am as suspicious as 
most in such respects, and I do believe that most of 
them are conceits and delusions ; yet, having been 
diligently inquisitive in all such cases ; I have re- 
ceived undoubted testimony of the truth of such 
apparitions." 

Daniel DeFoe, the admirable author of Robin- 
son Cruso says : 44 That there are such things, I 
think I need not go about to prove ; I believe that 
they are, next to the Scripture, some of the best 
and most desirable evidences of a future exis- 
tance. It would be endless to fill this paper with 
the testimonies of learned and pious men ; and I 
could add to them a volume of my own experiences ; 
some of them so strange as would shock your 
belief ; though I could produce such proof as would 
convince anyone." 



IMMORTALITY. 



73 



Isaac Taylor, the celebrated author of The 
Physical Theory of Another Life, justly remarks : 
— " The supposition of their being a universal 
persuasion totally groundless, not only in its form 
and adjuncts, but in its substance, does violence 
to the principles of human reasoning, and clearly 
is of dangerous consequence." 

Bishop Beveridge, in one of his published 
sermons, says: — "Though we cannot see them 
with our bodily eyes, except they assume, as they 
sometimes do, bodily shape, they are always as 
evident to our faith as anything can be to our 
sight." 

Richard Watson, author of a Life of Wesley 
defends Mr. Wesley, for his belief in the super- 
natural, in very vigorous language. — " On the 
general question of supernatural appearances, it 
may be remarked that Mr. Wesley might plead 
authorities for his faith as high, as numerous, 
and as learned, as any of our modern sceptics for 
their doubts. It is in modern times that this 
species of infidelity has appeared ; with the excep- 
tion of the sophists of the atheistical sects of Greece 
and Eome, and the Sadducees amongst the Jews. 
The unbelief so common in the present day 
among free thinkers and half thinkers on such 
subjects, places itself, therefore, with only these 
exceptions, in opposition to the learned and un- 
learned of every nation and age, polished, semi- 



74 



LIFE'S PROBLEMS. 



civilized and savage, in every quarter of the 
globe. It places itself in opposition to the 
Scriptures, from which all the criticism, bold 
subtle, absurd, or profane, which has been re- 
sorted to, can never expunge either apparitions or 
possessions. . . . That there have been many im- 
positions is allowed ; that many have been de- 
ceived is certain; that all such accounts should 
be subject to vigorous scrutiny before they can 
have any title to our belief, ought to be insisted 
upon. . . . But if one account in twenty, or a 
hundred, stands upon credible evidence, and is 
corroborated by circumstances in which, from 
their nature, there can be no mistake, there is 
sufficient to disturb the quiet, and confound the 
system of the whole body of sceptics." 

I have made the preceding quotations simply 
to indicate the nature and strength of the evi- 
dence of personal experiences of immortality, and 
the unimpeachable character of the witnesses. 
The men who have thus testified, were not of the 
rabble or vulgar crowd ; they belonged to the 
educated classes, and were familiar with the laws 
of evidence. They were philosophers, theolo- 
gians, and world-renowned scholars. To deny 
the immense mass of evidence on which their 
testimony is based, would be, in effect, to assert 
that universal history is neither more nor less 
than a huge falsehood. History has no stronger, 



IMMORTALITY. 



75 



nor more palpable impression on its pages than 
that made by its record of the supernatural. 
Apparitions glide through its labyrinths and 
look out upon the reader at every turn. If the 
story of altars, temples, and religious observances, 
— all of which are based on the supernatural, — 
were eliminated from its narrative, it would be a 
poor skeleton indeed. 

Jerry Stilling, in his Pneumatology, well says : 
— " The whole subject is generally treated as 
something superstitious and degrading. It be- 
longs to good breeding and refinement to smile at 
what are called ghost stories, and to deny the 
truth of them. And yet it is curious that people 
are so fond of hearing them told. Besides this, the 
incredulous narrator commonly seeks to make 
them as probable as possible." 

But Christianity is based upon precisely this 
kind of evidence. Upon the alleged fact of a 
supernatural appearance St. Paul bases his argu- 
ment in proof of the resurrection of Christ. His 
sole appeal is to the testimony of his own eyes 
and the eyes of others ! He affirms that Christ 
was seen after his crucifiction by James and Ce- 
phas, then by the Twelve, then by more than five 
hundred persons at once, most of whom were then 
living, and finally, by himself, " as one born out 
of due season." This is testimony, and nothing 
but testimony, and no amount of evasion can 



76 



LIFE'S PBOBLEMS. 



make it anything else. Shall we accept this 
testimony as trustworthy, and deny the testimony 
of other men equally able in all matters of learn- 
ing, and equally honest ? Let it be borne in 
mind that, upon such testimony the historical 
reliability of the New Testament must stand or 
fall! 

And yet in my sceptical moods, which were 
frequent, I confess I felt shy of testimony. I was 
a doubting Thomas. I would see for myself, and 
then, perhaps, I would believe. Sir Thomas 
Browne wittily says, in his Religio Medici, that 
" Those who, to complete their incredulity, desire 
to see apparitions, shall questionless never be- 
hold any. The devil hath them already in a 
heresy as capital as witchcraft, and to appear to 
them was to convert them." 

But God in his infinite mercy, doubtless seeing 
my desperate needs, granted me this very privi- 
lege. And here again, the words of Rev. Horace 
Bushnell (Nat. and the Sup. p. 464) are specially 
pertinent : — " I am well aware that a sober 
recapitulation of what appears to be the facts of 
the question, will appear to be a kind of weak- 
ness. Enough that, consciously to myself, it re- 
quires a much stronger balance of equilibrium, 
and a much firmer intellectual justice, saying 
nothing of the necessary courage, to report these 
facts, without any protestations of dissent or dig- 



IMMORTALITY. 



77 



credit, than it would be to toss them by, with 
derision, in compliance with the mere conven- 
tional notions and current judgments of the times. 
I shall therefore dare to report as true, facts 
which neither I, nor anybody else, has even so 
much as a tolerable show of reason for denying 
or treating with lightness.' ' 

These be brave words that have a good sound 
of honest manliness in them, and I shall not hesi- 
tate to follow Horace BushnelTs example. 

A dear and beautiful child of mine died very 
suddenly, of a usually harmless disease. It was 
the first death that had occurred in my household, 
and I was not prepared to meet it as a firm be- 
liever in immortality could and should. For 
many days and nights I prayed God to deliver 
me from my great sorrow. I had no faith then 
that the modern man is ever privileged to see the 
departed ; and as for the universal belief of man- 
kind in occasional spiritual appearances, — on 
which I have laid so much stress in this chapter, 
— I did not deem it worthy my attention. I, at 
least, did not expect that kind of proof that my 
child still lived and was immortal. 

But, unexpectedly, and to my great astonish- 
ment, precisely that kind of proof came. Within 
six weeks after my child's death, I saw him dis- 
tinctly and palpably on three different occasions, 
in broad daylight. 



78 



LIFE'S PBOBLEMS. 



His first appearance I supposed due to the 
spontaneous action of the memory, by which his 
image, photographed upon the brain, was pro- 
jected into an apparent objective reality. I was 
confirmed in this conclusion from the fact that he 
was dressed, and looked in all respects, like his 
earthly self. 

His second appearance was a repetition of his 
first, and my conviction as to the nature of the 
phenomenon was unchanged. I still regarded it 
as a purely mental projection, and therefore im- 
aginary and delusive. 

But I was soon to learn that these appearances 
were simply preliminary to the final result. I 
was to be convinced beyond all further question 
or doubt. There was a third appearance. My 
child stood before me, dressed as he had never 
been on earth ; with hand uplifted, and an un- 
clasped finger pointing to the sky ! 

It was enough. I was convinced, and could no 
longer doubt. My mental theory gave way and 
vanished in air. Like Thomas, convinced that 
his risen Saviour stood before him, I exclaimed, 
"Lord I believe ; help Thou my unbelief! " The 
absolute faith in immortality to which I then at- 
tained has never left me, nor as the years have 
gone by in the least weakened. Again and again 
it has been confirmed by similar experiences, and 
with such variations as to sweep away every loop- 



IMMOB TALITY. 



79 



hole of doubt. A single instance, that occurred 
to me while at the house of a friend in 1865, is 
notably worthy of mention. 

One evening, while sitting in the library with 
the family, I was surprised to see standing near a 
window an elderly lady, of foreign aspect, in the 
dress of a century ago. It was some time before 
I could gather sufficient courage to speak of what 
I saw ; so strong upon me was the dread of be- 
ing laughed at. At length I said: I seem to see, 
standing near the west window, an elderly woman 
who appears anxious to make herself known ; and 
I described her appearance minutely. But none 
of the family were able to identify her. The 
unanimous conclusion was that I was the victim 
of an optical delusion, and that the old lady was a 
myth. But the old lady was not thus to be dis- 
missed. A few minutes later she said to me : " I 
am a relative of Capt. H.," and she gave her 
name. I repeated this to the family, and again 
questioning ensued. All agreed, finally, that the 
name was strange and unknown to any one pres- 
ent. At this juncture some one suggested that 
the genealogy of the H. family be examined. The 
identical name given by the old lady was soon 
found among the branches of their genealogical 
tree ; and strangely enough it appeared that she 
was an English woman who had lived two hun- 
dred and sixteen years ago. She disappeared 
the moment she was identified. 



80 



LIFE'S PBOBLEMS. 



Can demonstration go further ? If I was the 
victim of an optical illusion, how did I obtain the 
right name ? Was it merely a shrewd guess ? 
Why should I have guessed at all, if I saw 
nothing? The only conclusion common sense 
can accept, is, that the appearance was real, and 
just what it purported to be. 

The argument for immortality was now com- 
plete. I was in possession of all the proof I de- 
sired of man's personal existence after death ; and 
with all due respect to those who hold to the 
theory of the annihilation of the wicked, — of 
which something hereafter, — I was in possession 
of indubitable proof of man's personal immortal- 
ity. The combined scientific and historical argu- 
ment I am confident cannot be refuted. Let us 
go forward. What shall we do with immortal 
man after death? In what part of God's uni- 
verse does he continue to live ? Where is his 
home ? 



A SPIRITUAL WORLD. 



THE common imagination that we have of Paradise, on the 
other side of death, is that of a lofty serial region where the in- 
mates float in ether, or are mysteriously suspended upon noth- 
ing; where all the warm and sensible accompaniments which 
give such an expression of strength, life and coloring to our 
present habitations are wanting; where every vestige of mate- 
rialism is done away, and nothing left hut certain unearthly 
scenes that have no power of allurement, and certain unearthly 
ecstasies, with which it is impossible to sympathize. ... It 
altogether holds out a warmer and more alluring picture of the 
Elysium that awaits us, when told that there will be beauty to 
delight the eye, and music to regale the ear, and the comfort 
that springs from all the charities of intercourse between man 
and man. . . . We are now walking on a terrestrial surface, 
not more compact than the one we shall hereafter walk upon, 
and are now wearing terrestrial bodies, not firmer, perhaps, nor 
more solid than those we shall wear hereafter. 

— Thomas Chalmers, LL.D. 



CHAPTER VII. 



A SPIRITUAL WO BID. 



If man lives after death he must live some- 
where, and somewhere must be a place. The 
hymns in which I delighted came to mind ; and, 
in the clearer light into which I had come, re- 
ceived a new interpretation and significance. 
The element of fancy was clean gone from 
them, and they helped confirm me in the convic- 
tion that the place of the departed is composed 
of such substantial conditions and arrangements 
as to warrant the application of the word world 
as its proper designation. It would seem im- 
possible to avoid the use of that word in any 
proper, or intelligible description of our after- 
death abode. The poets, doubtless, from intui- 
tive necessity, have used the word very freely in 
their conceptions of the scenery of the heavenly 
world. With the following specimens selected 
from a mass of similar character, it may be pre- 
sumed everybody is familiar: 



LIFE'S PROBLEMS. 



" It lies around us like a cloud, 

A world we do not see ; 
Yet the sweet closing of an eye, 

May bring us there to be." 

Mrs. H. B. Stowe. 

" There is a world we have not seen, 
That wasting time can ne'er destroy ; 

Where mortal footstep hath not been, 
Nor ear hath caught its sounds of joy." 

Anon. 

" There is a glorious world on high, 

Eesplendent with eternal day ; 
Faith views the blissful prospect nigh, 

And God's own word reveals the way." 

Mrs. Stabl. 

" There is a land mine eye hath seen, 
In visions of enraptured thought ; 

So bright that all that spreads between, 
Is with its radiant glory fraught." 

Anon. 

" There is a land of pure delight, 

Where saints immortal reign ; 
Infinite day excludes the night, 

And pleasures banish pain." 



SPIBITUAL WORLD. 



85 



" There everlasting Spring abides, 

And never fading flowers ; 
Death like a narrow sea divides 

This heavenly land from ours." 

" Sweet fields, beyond the swelling flood, 

Stand dressed in living green ; 
So to the Jews old Canaan stood, 

While Jordan rolled between." 

Dr. Watts. 

" O the transporting, rapturous scene, 

That rises on my sight ; 
Sweet fields arrayed in living green, 

And rivers of delight ! 

" All o'er these wide extended plains, 

Shines one eternal day ; 
There God, the Sun, forever reigns, 

And scatters night away." 

Stennett. 



Here, again, we have the same fatality of lan- 
guage, and, indeed, of thought, pertaining to any 
description, or even mention of the life to come, 
that we have seen attaches to all forms of prayer, 
and to any proper description of Deity. I style 
it a fatality of language that we should speak 
of our future immortal home as a world, and de- 



86 



LIFE'S PBOBLEMS. 



scribe it, topographically, as we would a conti- 
nent of our globe. But, in truth, it is simply 
the necessary adaptation of a word, or of words, 
to an absolute fact. 

To say that the world to come is " a state and 
not a^Zace," — the common refuge of ignorance 
and doubt, — is certainly to talk nonsense ; for, 
surely, one implies the other. State is condition. 
Place is locality. The two are inseparable. If 
the world to come is not a place, is not a locality, 
then it is nowhere ; it is nothing ; and cannot be 
conceived to exist. But when we attempt to 
think of the world to come, the inevitable basis 
of our thought is its assumed reality. We are 
absolutely compelled to make this assumption in 
order to obtain a base from which to think 
about it ! 

Practically test this. Suppose, then, that you 
take away from this world all its forms and sub- 
stances ; would there be any world left ? " We 
would not hesitate a moment to pronounce a man 
foolish, or insane, who should deny that there is 
any such material as wood, and then begin to 
describe a tree ; or who should deny the possi- 
bility of the existence of water, and then pro- 
ceed to expatiate on the nature and beauties of a 
river, or the grandeur of the ocean." " Sweet 
fields beyond the swelling flood," sings Dr. Watts. 
But how can that be if there are no fields there ? 



A SPIBITUAL WOBLD. 



87 



" Stand dressed in living green," he continues. 
But if there is nothing there to be dressed in liv- 
ing green — neither fields, nor forests, nor shrub 
nor flower — ought not such deceptive use of lan- 
guage, even in poetry, to be rebuked and repudi- 
ated? We talk of meeting our friends "over 
there " ; but how can friends meet, if there be 
no place of meeting ? The world of spirits evi- 
dently has both substance and form, and such 
appointments as are indispensable to constitute a 
world. 

With this common-sense conclusion, I found 
the Bible in strict agreement. It speaks of the 
spiritual world as a " country," "land," "king- 
dom," "house," "world." 

To the same effect are its idiomatic expres- 
sions, namely: "in heaven," "to heaven," "from 
heaven," " up to heaven," " gone away into 
heaven." 

We read of arrivals from heaven and depart- 
ures to heaven. Christ promises his disciples 
that, after his death, He will go and " prepare a 
place " for them, in one of the many mansions of 
His "Father's house," that where He is they may 
be also. 

There can be no mistake as to the meaning of 
such language, nor excuse for misapplying it. If 
there were no avenues opened to us by reason, 
science, language ; if we were confined solely to 



88 



LIFE'S PROBLEMS. 



the Bible for our knowledge of the after-death 
life, I would not hesitate to declare my firm con- 
viction that our future Home is not only substan- 
tial and tangible, but also as real and palpable to 
the liberated spirit, as our earthly home now is to 
our spirit in its material form. A material body 
for contact with a material world; a spiritual 
body for contact with a spiritual world. Such is 
the formula of reason, science and revelation. 
Says Paul : 44 There is a natural body, and there 
is a spiritual body." There is a natural world 
and there is a spiritual world. Both are real and 
substantial. One is temporary; the other is 
eternal. 

The destruction of the material world, should 
such a catastrophe transpire, would no more 
affect the perpetuity of the spiritual world, than 
the death of a man's material body affects the 
perpetuity of his immortal soul. The spiritual 
is imperishable. It is the Alpha and Omega — 
the first and the last. 44 God is a spirit." 44 The 
things that are not seen are eternal." 

I have spoken thus far of a spiritual world, as 
if there were but one ; but it will be made evident, 
farther on, that there is a universe of spiritual 
worlds, of which our material universe is a pro- 
totype, and in a certain sense the base — the 
theatre of objective busy life, and of more amaz- 
ing displays of the wisdom and love of God. 



A SPIBITUAL WOULD. 



89 



The conclusion here reached brought me defi- 
nitely in contact with a problem which, though 
belonging to the same general subject, the 
stoutest investigators, so far as my informa- 
tion goes, have not undertaken to solve. The 
successful solution of this problem will firmly 
establish the position taken in this chapter, and 
place it beyond the shadow of a doubt. 



ORIGIN OF THE SPIRITUAL WORLD. 



All things are emblems. What thou seest is not there on its 
own account. Matter exists only spiritually, and to represent 
some idea, and body it forth. 

—Carlylein Sartor Resartus. 

Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which 
is natural, and afterward that which is spiritual. 

— St. Paul. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



ORIGIN OF THE SPIRITUAL WORLD. 

The problem now to be solved is no less than 
this, — The Origin of the Spiritual World. 

A tough problem, you say, and truly enough. 
Who knows ? Who can know ? But let us not 
be discouraged by the apparent difficulty which 
pertains to the problem. Clear-eyed science has 
demonstrated, again and again, that mystery, and 
the apparently impossible, are often only the 
superficial veils of truth near at hand and wait- 
ing to be revealed. 

Of one thing I felt absolutely certain : Every- 
thing of which we have absolute knowledge has 
been developed from unseen interior causes, or 
from an unseen interior cause. Experience and 
observation know no other law. 

The butterfly, for example, is developed from 
the caterpillar. In the caterpillar stage the butter- 
fly exists only in outline, or in a rudimentary 
form. If there were no rudimentary butterfly 
in the caterpillar, the butterfly would be impos- 



94 



LIFE'S PBOBLEMS. 



sible. It is everlastingly true that out of noth- 
ing nothing comes! 

In the bud upon the rose-bush is contained the 
exquisite rose, and its full development waits only 
upon conditions and time. 

The blade, the stock, the leaf, the blossom, the 
fruit, are all in rudiment in the seed. The 
glory, beauty and magnificence of Summer, 
spring from apparently dead earth, shrub and 
bough. The great First Cause, from his hidden 
laboratory in the heart of nature, works a per- 
petual miracle that has no parallel, 

Man begins his existence in a semi-fluid sub- 
stance of little apparent promise ; but it con- 
tains, nevertheless, the future man ; the one last 
wonderful link next to Deity. 

Unaided by science, St. Paul affirmed a truth 
that underlies the vast circumstance of all mate- 
rial phenomena : " The things that are seen, were 
not made of the things that do appear ! " 

What then ? From the chain of analogy thus 
developed, and on the basis of Paul's statement 
of an undeniable fact, it irreversibly follows, 
that, from the material worlds, as their legitimate 
fruitage, arose spiritual worlds, in the precise 
order of seed, flower, fruit. A material world 
contains the germ and base of a spiritual world, 
its exact photograph and necessary result. They 
are developed contemporaneously — as the butter- 



ORIGIN OF THE SPIRITUAL WORLD. 95 



fly is developed from the caterpillar, the rose from 
the bush, the grain from seed, and man from a 
semi-fluid substance. The order of nature is 
nowhere found to be broken ; and the just infer- 
ence is, that whatever its extent, its height or 
depth, it is nowhere broken. 

From this point of view we are permitted to 
contemplate, not merely a spiritual world, but a 
stupendous and unspeakably magnificent spirit- 
ual universe ! — the abode of busy populations 
and the theatre of an ever-unfolding and ever- 
advancing immortal life, 

With the great eye of the telescope I have 
swept the starry heavens, from our little stand- 
point of earth, out into almost inconceivable 
depths of space. The milky-way, the gulf- 
stream of our immediate system, so hazy and 
dim as to seem to the naked eye impalpable 
cosmic mist, resolved into clusters of shining 
worlds. Out beyond our own firmament, at 
distances that thought fails to grasp, were other 
firmaments of worlds, each with its superb gal- 
axy, hung like a fringe of topaz on the robe of 
night. At the remotest limit of telescopic vision 
lay a horizon, etched by films of light faint as a 
summer's aurora, hinting the magnificent contents 
of regions unexplored by man. I caught some- 
thing of the ancient patriarch's ecstacy, and ex- 
claimed : " Lo ! these are but a part of His 



96 



LIFE'S PROBLEMS. 



ways." More than an hundred million stars be- 
long to our " island universe," and we are but a 
single unit among myriads of similar systems. 
If one could speed a hundred thousand miles at 
each pulse-beat, and that for an hundred years, 
the thronging millions of blazing suns would still 
be around him, each separated from the other by 
such a distance that, in the journey of a century, 
he would have left only a half a score behind. 

Now add to each of these shining worlds an 
accompanying sphere inconceivably more perfect 
and glorious, as the soul is more perfect and 
glorious than our material body; add the full- 
blown rose to the bush, the gorgeous butterfly to 
the humble caterpillar, the field of golden grain 
to the seed ; aggregate these spiritual worlds into 
clusters, systems, firmaments and universes, and 
all revolving around a central sun, such as Argel- 
ander never conceived for the material universe ; 
conceive this, and project the picture with the 
strongest possible coloring upon the canvas, and 
some faint conception may be had of the extent, 
the structure, and the perfection of the spiritual 
universe, " the higher Alps of God," our spirit- 
ual, immortal home ! Truly, " in our Father's 
house are many mansions." 

Is this speculation? If this be not true, then 
are facts vanity, and the most precise reasoning 
from facts a delusion. In his great argument in 



ORIGIN OF THE SPIRITUAL WORLD. 97 



demonstration of the resurrection of the dead 
(1 Cor. xv.) St. Paul asserts that the natural 
was first in the creative order, and afterwards the 
spiritual. His statement is very exact : " That 
was not first which was spiritual, hut that which 
was natural, and afterwards that which was spir- 
itual" 

Science confirms this statement, and not less 
common observation. The order of nature is 
that the gross and unrefined shall be first ; and 
the refined and perfected afterwards. With an 
eye to nature, and this order carefully observed, 
St. Paul further asserts : " There is a natural 
body, and there is also a spiritual body." The 
natural first, the spiritual afterwards. So, too, I 
affirm, and on the same authority: There is a 
natural universe, and there is also a spiritual uni- 
verse. "Howbeit that was not first that was 
spiritual ! " 

But again, we say : " Out of nothing nothing 
comes." The phenomena of nature, from its 
lowest to its highest, from its least to its largest 
forms, is achieved through the agency of spirit 
working through natural forms up to the indi- 
vidualization of spirit as a final result. The 
order everywhere apparent, the beauty that 
paints the flowers and radiates from every object 
in creation, according to its degree, the wisdom 
displayed in infinite adaptations of use, even the 



98 



LIFE' 8 PROBLEMS. 



dullest must perceive, can arise only from a cause 
adequate to produce them, and that that cause 
can be no other than the absolute spirit whose 
attributes are wisdom, beauty, use and power. 

And here, again, the great Paul conforms to 
observation and natural order. Rebuking the 
Roman philosophers for their spiritual blindness, 
he affirms that " the invisible things from the 
creation of the world, are clearly seen by the 
things that are made so that even the heathen 
were without excuse. If this be true, it inevi- 
tably follows that material forms must be sy- 
nonyms of spiritual forms, and that a spiritual 
world must as closely resemble its material base 
as the spiritual man closely resembles, in form 
and feature, its material body. 

" All things," says Caiiyle in Sartor Resartus, 
" are emblems. What thou seest is not there on 
its own account. Matter exists only spiritually, 
and to represent some idea and body it forth." 

Or, as the Bible puts it : " Material things are 
6 the shadows of heavenly things.' " Moses was 
admonished to make all things pertaining to the 
tabernacle and its service " after the pattern of 
things in the heavens." The things in the 
heavens, therefore, have form ; and the heavens 
have form. The demonstration is thus reached 
that the spiritual world is not merely a " state," 
but a substantial "place" of abode; a country 
to dwell in ; a home to enjoy. 



OBIGIN OF THE SPIBITUAL WOULD. 99 



Topographically speaking, the spiritual world, 
like the material world, has great variety of 
scenery, and every conceivable form of adapta- 
tion and use. Its conditions are flexible to every 
mood and to every need. Hill, mountain, and 
plain ; trees, shrubs, and flowers ; lake, river, 
and ocean, are all there as the natural belongings 
of that incomparable sphere. There is beauty 
for the lover of the beautiful ; grandeur and sub- 
limity to expand and lift the soul in adoration of 
its Creator ; exquisite harmony of objects, colors, 
sounds, to charm away all discordant thoughts ; 
adaptation to lead to unbroken content and 
peace ; and in everything wisdom, goodness, and 
love. There is a place for every one, and every 
one is in his proper place. Humboldt finds a new 
Cosmos to explore and illustrate ; Beethoven, 
loftier themes for immortal sonatas ; Strauss, an 
orchestra of angels to conduct through more 
marvellous mazes of melody ; Milton, a fairer 
Paradise Regained to picture in more glowing 
verse ; Herschel, celestial firmaments to investigate 
and describe, surpassing in splendor Orion, Ursa 
Major, or the Southern Cross ; Marco Polo, fresh 
and unknown regions to penetrate, teeming with 
populations and cities more strange than those of 
Tartary or Cathay ; while the great artists find 
free scope for their genius, in vast temples and 
cathedrals, in purest marbles, that yield to their 



100 



LIFE'S PBOBLEMS. 



highest ideals, on canvas that testifies to the mag- 
nificence of their conceptive thought. The famous 
orators of ancient and modern times, " whom lis- 
tening senates heard entranced," find a fitting 
audience to applaud their eloquence, and appre- 
ciate and admire the wisdom of their speech. 
Newton composes a new Principia ; Bacon a 
more perfect Organon. Great inventors develop 
from the profounder nature her most recon- 
dite secrets, and hand them down to earth to 
be embodied and practically applied. Nor 
are the humblest souls without an appro- 
priate stage for their abilities and development. 
The fields await the gardens of fragrance and 
bowers of beauty ; and country and hamlet, 
town and city, the nobler architecture of a 
better and happier world. Whether it be hand- 
work or brain- work, all " work is worship " and 
brings joy ; and the world of souls is as full of 
busy industry as it is with the glory of the Lord. 
No time is wasted in aimless lingering around the 
throne, or playing on golden harps. We shall 
carry thither our limbs, our hands and feet, our 
eyes and ears, our brain with all its marvellous 
faculties and possibilities ; and these imply a 
sphere for their effective use. Our personality 
preserved, and all else follows as a matter of 
course. 

I was able to approximate an idea of the supe- 



ORIGIN OF THE SPIRITUAL WOULD. 101 



riority of the spiritual world to our material 
world, on reflecting that the agreeability and 
adaptation of any given locality depend upon 
the degree of harmony that exists between our 
interior state and exterior surroundings. There 
is scarcely a place upon the earth's surface that 
would not be agreeable and enjoyable, if one 
were in perfect harmony with external objects 
and associated with agreeable and concordant 
minds. Choose, then, some favored spot where 
nature, in every aspect, is at her best ; where the 
soul is in perfect fellowship with all it sees, hears 
and feels, and every rational desire is fully grati- 
fied ; and is it not certain that unspeakable hap- 
piness and contentment would ensue? And such, 
at least, is the state and place of the pure and 
just in the realm of souls. As it is written : 
" Eye hath not seen, ear hath not heard, neither 
hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive, 
the glory that God has prepared for those who 
love him ! " 

And, best of all, it is real. The spiritual 
world is no fanciful fog-bank, no unorganized 
ideal mist, no fantastic, delusive mirage. Its 
life is home-life ; its deepest joys are home-joys. 
Many of our relatives and friends are already 
there. They have never ceased to love us, and 
yearn for our presence among them ; and when 
we shall have reached their lovely dwelling-place, 



102 



LIFE'S PROBLEMS. 



they will receive us with demonstrations of inex- 
pressible delight. 

He who wrote the following description of our 
heavenly home, must have looked out upon it 
from some lofty spiritual Pizgah, with unveiled 
eyes : 

" There is a world in space, a world of mind, 

Of substance so etherial that the sphere 

Of its perfection, like a soul enshrined 

In God's own beauty, shines in brightness clear, 

Invisible to men of mortal sight. 

" . . . . And all the span 
Of its wide firmament is set with spheres 
That shine by day as well as night. Their motion 
Pervades with music all its atmospheres, 
And thrills with song each continent and ocean. 
And, like the green leaves rustling on a tree, 
The amber clouds make music far below, 
O'er flowering islands of felicity, 
Bosomed in waters flushed like morning's snow. 
And there is neither age, nor death, upon 
That lovely planet. There no mortal pains, 
But life in liquid melody flows on 
Forever without pause. No sanguine stains 
Of murder tinge its past ; no tears have wet 
Its mild etherial countenance. The smile 
Of love's immortal joy is crown-like set, 
O'er sea, and lake, and continent, and isle." 



ORIGIN OF THE SPIRITUAL WORLD. 103 

To this splendid sphere the unbroken order of 
nature points. To ascertain its social organiza- 
tion, and the state of its vast populations, will 
engage our efforts in the chapter following. No 
inquiry more important and interesting can pos- 
sibly be undertaken. 



OTHER WORLD ORDER. 



Of Law there can be no less acknowleged, than that her 
seat is in the bosom of God, her voice the harmony ot the world, 
all things in heaven and earth do her homage, the very least as 
feeling her care, and the greatest as not exempt from her 
power.— Ricli ard Hooker. 



CHAPTER IX. 



OTHEB WOBLD OB DEB. 

A spieitual world, a " place " for the resi- 
dence of men, women, and children, who go 
thither through the gateway of death, I now said, 
and without a shadow of doubt, is ; but it was 
only after long struggle and suspense that I at- 
tained to satisfactory conclusions as to its social 
condition, the method of distribution of its vast 
populations, and the order there established and 
maintained. 

It was essential to my peace of mind that I 
should know something of the nature of the coast, 
and the character of the country I knew I was 
steadily approaching, and must eventually enter. 
I did not, therefore, fail to press the question, — 
Is the port to which we are consigned, in " a land 
that eateth up the inhabitance thereof ; " where 
" dwell the sons of Anak, who come of the 
giants, " and " in whose sight we are as grass- 
hoppers ; " or does it abound with the grapes of 
Eschol, and " flow with milk and honey? " Our 
mental satisfaction and contentment, necessarily, 



108 



LIFE'S PBOBLEMS. 



in a great measure depend upon the answer we 
shall give to this question. The spiritual world may 
be very beautiful ; it may be provided with every 
conceivable appliance to gratify the taste and ex- 
pand the mind; but of what avail beautiful 
scenery and appliances for aesthetic and moral 
culture, if its social conditions be uncongenial? 
It may afford every desirable means of personal 
enjoyment ; but of what avail means of personal 
enjoyment, if there we fail to meet and know our 
parents, brothers, sisters, children, and cherished 
friends ? And if we shall realize that they are 
not only lost to us forever, but to be forever un- 
speakably wretched, of what avail white robes, 
golden crowns, and a retinue of people in whom 
we had no earthly interest, and with whom we 
were not even acquainted ? 

While engaged on a solution of the main ques- 
tion, out of which these minor questions grew, my 
mind underwent a process of gradual develop- 
ment, and I arose to the conclusion which I ul- 
timately reached, over a succession of necessary 
but preliminary stages. The entire process, to- 
gether with its results, may be included in the 
following proposition : 

All men are not equally developed intellectually, 
morally, nor spiritually, nor are all equally holy 
and happy immediately after death. Their place 
in the social organization of the spiritual world, is 



OTHEB WOULD OBDEB. 



109 



determined by the variety and quality of their 
moral and intellectual state. 

The proof, sustaining this proposition, is 
specific and irresistible. It is, in part, contained 
in the following particulars : 

1. Variety and diversity, 1 perceived, result 
from far-reaching and uniform laws. The least 
of things, as well as the largest, are under their 
inflexible control. Diversity of parentage — the 
almost infinite variety of souls — the manifold de- 
grees of development in respect to culture and re- 
finement, morally and intellectually — imply not 
only exterior, but interior conditions that are 
irreversible and ineradicable. The forms of 
life, from the lowest to the highest degree, dis- 
close no exception. We are justified, therefore, 
on grounds of strictly scientific deduction, in con- 
cluding that, beyond our mortal ken, there is no 
exception even to the uttermost limit. 

2. St. Paul, a profound and logical thinker, 
independent of inspiration, did not hesitate to 
extend the laws of variety and diversity into the 
spiritual world ; and he justified himself on purely 
naturalistic grounds. He did not fear to carry 
his argument, though grounded in the order of 
nature, into the higher realm of spirit. 

To the question — always more or less perplex- 
ing the minds of men — " How are the dead raised 



110 



LIFE'S PBOBLEMS. 



up, and with what body do they come?" he re- 
turned this concise answer : 

"That which thou sowest is not quickened ex- 
cept it die." In other words, before the germ in 
the seed can be developed into the blade, the 
stock, the ear, the external covering of the germ 
must burst asunder and perish. Before man can 
be " quickened," or developed for the life immor- 
tal, he must be released from his material body by 
the agency of death. 

" And that which thou sowest, thou sowest not 
the body that shall be." The grain sown is not 
gathered again, but is left to perish in the ground. 
The germ and species to which it belongs are pre- 
served, and in due time reappear in the ripened 
grain of the harvest. Like the body of the grain> 
the material body, once laid aside, is never again 
resumed. "It is not the body that shall be." 
But that which gave to the body form, life, motion, 
is preserved and "clothed upon, that mortality 
might be swallowed up of life." 

" All is not the same flesh. There is one kind 
of flesh of men, another of birds, and another of 
fishes. There are bodies terrestrial, and bodies 
celestial. There is a glory of the sun, a glory of 
the moon, and a glory of the stars ; and one star 
differeth from another star in glory. So also is 
the resurrection (anastasis, or future life) of the 
dead." The orders and grades of things existing 



OTHER WOULD ORDER. 



Ill 



everywhere here, is continued and maintained 
there; and the successive links of the chain do 
not terminate save where life terminates. Paul 
stands loyally by the analogy, and enforces his 
assertion to the Romans, that, " the invisible 
things from the foundation of the world, may be 
clearly seen by the things that are made." 

" It is sown in corruption, it is raised in incor- 
ruption. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in 
power. It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in 
glory. It is sown a natural body, it is raised a 
spiritual body." This mortal life is the first stage ; 
the immortal life is the second. These are stages, 
not of two different beings, but of the same being. 
One star continues to differ from another star in 
glory. Neither here nor hereafter is creation a 
dead level, nor can it be reduced to a dead level. 

Thus far Paul. If the analogy on which he 
bases his argument be reliable — and there cer- 
tainly is no valid reason why it is not — it is ab- 
solutely certain that variety and diversity of 
personal state, and of social condition, are marked 
features of the spiritual world. 

3. I saw, too, that without variety and diver- 
sity separate, or differentiated existence would be 
impossible. If each particular thing and creature 
were, in every respect, precisely alike, they would 
inevitably seek a common level, and to occupy a 
single focus. That road leads to chaos. 



112 



LIFE'S PBOBLEMS. 



4. It was also apparent that one of the most 
essential features of creation, physically and 
morally, would be wanting if creation were devoid 
of beauty. Plrysieal beauty depends upon form 
and color, light and shade, in infinite variety. 
Intellectual and moral beauty depend upon purity, 
truth, and love, manifested in infinite variety and 
combination of ideas, affections, and actions. 
Without these forms of beauty, whether here or 
hereafter, the formation of a pure and symmetri- 
cal character, and the attainment of perfect hap- 
piness, would be impossible. If creation were 
without variety, it would not only be devoid of 
use, to beings such as we are, but " stale, flat, and 
unprofitable " to an unbearable degree. While I 
could not conceive of the spiritual world as in 
any way different, externally, from this world, it 
was also evident that personal peculiarity is con- 
tinued there, in all its variety and diversity, even 
to the minutest particular. 

But to what extent, I asked, do the laws of va- 
riety and diversity affect individual and social life 
in the spiritual world ? Has the spiritual world 
a social organization? If it has — if it be not 
anarchic and chaotic — on what principles and 
lines of distinction is it affected ? What are the 
facts that must determine our answer ? 

1. It is absolutely certain that thirty-six 
millions of human beings die annually. They 



OTHER WORLD ORDER. 



113 



enter the spiritual world from every sphere of 
life, and from every nation under heaven. Every 
physical, moral and intellectual grade, and every 
degree of grade, is represented. A very large 
number who go thither are infants. Two-thirds 
of the adults are from pagan lands, and from the 
criminal and most abandoned classes of society. 
Of the remainder one would scarcely venture to 
say : " Of such is the kingdom of heaven." 

2. It is pertinent to ask, — Is this immense 
multitude of souls passed yearly into the spirit- 
ual world without discrimination or restraint, and 
allowed at will to mix and intermix? Is the 
spiritual world a veritable witches carnival, where 
" black spirits and white, blue spirits and grey, 
mingle, mingle, mingle," irrespective of any or 
all differences of disposition or taste, intellectual 
or moral development and culture, and mingle 
thus forever ? Then is the spiritual world no im- 
provement on this world ; and perfect harmony 
and happiness, be it in heaven, or elsewhere, is 
manifestly unattainable. 

3. It will afford no relief from this result to 
suppose universal conversion and holiness, or the 
conversion and holiness of a part, and the irre- 
trievable damnation of a part ; for it is obvious 
that neither the one nor the other would reduce 
the world of souls to a dead uniformity, and ob- 
literate constitutional and acquired distinctions. 



114 



LIFE'S PROBLEMS. 



4. Our present social state, whether in civil- 
ized or semi-civilized communities, is made possi- 
ble, and its imperfect order maintained, by the 
careful observance of such distinctions as spring 
from morals and culture. From the highest virtue 
to the lowest vice, from great enlightenment to 
the profoundest ignorance, from Christian civil- 
ization to the most beastly barbarism, from faith 
in God and man to cold-blooded nihilism, society 
shades off by almost imperceptible degrees. But 
disregard all lines of separation, sink out of sight 
all social, moral and intellectual distinctions, and 
confusion and anarchy would be the inevitable 
result. We may be sure that in the spiritual 
world these lines of separation are not disregarded, 
but are strictly observed. No system of spiritual 
communism prevails there ! 

5. The tendencies of modern society, instead 
of being in the direction of laxity, are steadily 
moving towards a more severe definition of its di- 
verse, and often antagonistic elements, and the 
formation of distinct social centres. Everywhere, 
under the action of uniform laws, like is seeking 
like. Refinement is seeking refinement, culture 
is seeking culture, spirituality is seeking spiritu- 
ality, wickedness and vulgarity are seeking 
wickedness and vulgarity, and the movement is 
yearly accelerating,, In the words of a homely 
proverb, " Birds of a feather flock together ; " 



OTHEB WOULD OBDEB. 115 



and, as one result of our present ignorance of each 
other, coupled often with a disregard of moral 
principles, the different flocks sometimes get 
badly intermixed. " Now we see through a glass 
darkly; now we see in part and know in part." 
This fact sufficiently accounts for the present im- 
perfection of our social organization, and its tre- 
mendous discords even in the most favored cen- 
tres of our civilization. 

6. The words of Jesus may here be cited as 
conclusive. Just before his crucifixion he said to 
his disciples, — "Let not your heart be troubled, 
neither let it be afraid. In my Father's house 
are many mansions. If it were not so I would 
have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will 
come again and receive you to myself, that where 
I am ye may be also." 

That J esus had reference not only to some par- 
ticular place, but to fitness of place, who can 
doubt ? And that variety of place, according to 
fitness, is equally implied, is undeniable. If all 
shall be in the same place in the spiritual world, 
and there be no variety of fitness there, the words 
of Jesus are simply deceptive and misleading. 
At any rate, between the place that " eye hath not 
seen, nor ear heard, nor hath it entered into the 
heart of man to conceive, that God hath prepared 
for those that love Him," and the place prepared 



116 



LIFE' 8 PBOBLEMS. 



for those who do not love Him, the difference 
t must be, to us mortals, something inconceivable. 
^We may safely conclude, therefore, that the 
spiritual world has a social organization, and that 
it is as various and diverse as are its physical 
features. The lines defining its special states are 
sharply and inflexibly drawn, and wide-spread 
order is the result. 

But, I further queried, — How is social organ- 
ization in the spiritual world effected ? Precisely 
on the same principles, and by the action of the 
same laws, as here ; in a word, on the basis of at- 
traction, enforced by absolute knowledge of each 
other. We have not only the authority of the 
Bible, but of common sense, to assure us that in 
that world our power of perception will be 
greatly enlarged and advanced, and we shall not 
only " see face to face," hut " knotv even as we 
are known/" The startling significance of these 
words may be thus illustrated : 

Suppose that to-morrow morning everybody 
should be permitted to know as much about 
every person, within their acquaintance, as they 
do about themselves. How many friendships 
that would not be broken ? How many business 
relations that would not be severed ? How many 
marriage connections that would not be immediately 
intolerable ? Is it not certain that the majority 
of old relations would speedily break up, and new 



OTHEB WOBLD OB DEE. 117 



relations be formed ? Society would be recon- 
structed, as quickly as possible, on the basis of 
actual affinities, and heaven and hell on earth, 
not intermixed, but rigidly defined and separate, 
would be the inevitable result. 

In the clear unclouded light of immortality, 
when we shall " know as we are known," when 
our knowledge of each other shall be complete, 
how can the result be otherwise in the spiritual 
world ? It is evident that the changes that tran- 
spire in personal association after death, must be 
very radical. " Order is heaven's first law," and 
in its economy each individual " goes to his own 
place," and associates with his like. 

I did not forget, here, that God rules by law, 
and not from caprice. Choice is effected by the 
silent action of law operating from within, and 
no violence is done to individual preferences and 
attractions. Each goes willingly and cheerfully 
"to his own place," and therefore by choice, and 
is as happy in his choice as conditions and ca- 
pacity permit. 

Something like this is daily transpiring here 
in our common life. Without violence, and 
mostly without force from without, men and 
women are silently asserting and following their 
preferences. Political parties are formed on the 
basis of political preference. Creeds are accepted 
from choice. Churches, often antagonistic in 



118 



LIFE'S PBOBLEMS. 



doctrine and discipline, are monuments of the 
irrepressible law that aggregates likes and estab- 
lishes lines of fellowship. Chemical affinity, so 
imperious in determining the association of 
particles, and the forms of matter, moves upward 
a degree, and is equally imperious in determining- 
social and other forms of association. Can it be 
that the law of association is less imperious on 
the higher plane of the spirit life ? If the most 
interior reality of each individual life were laid 
bare ; if every thought, word and act were 
brought to judgment ; how long would that fes- 
tering debauchee, that satined and jewelled harlot, 
that millionaire whose wealth was begotten in 
narrowness and meanness, that impersonation of 
supreme selfishness and conceit, hold their places 
in popular respect, and on the uppermost seats 
of society? How long would that gilded and 
sanctimonious hypocrite stand in pulpit, or sit at 
ease in pew of a fashionable church? Once 
known, they would gravitate to their kind, and 
the common sentiment of virtue and righteousness 
would keep them there until ruled by new and 
higher attractions, and made fit associates of the 
pure and good. 

The notion, sometimes indulged, that, on enter- 
ing the spiritual world, such a flood of light will 
at once break forth as to overwhelm all the evil 
with a sense of their sinfulness, convince them of 



OTHEB WOULD OBDEB. 119 

the unchanging goodness and love of God, induce 
immediate repentance and reformation, and make 
them fit associates of saints and angels, and the 
Lord Jesus Christ, and thus reduce the spiritual 
world to a common level of holiness and happiness, 
is wholly imaginary. The sudden conversion of 
St. Paul, often cited to sustain this notion, is not 
in point. One thing is certain : The method of 
Paul's conversion is not the method God ordi- 
narily employs in the conversion of souls. Paul's 
conversion was as exceptional as the turning of 
water into wine, or the feeding of five thousand 
people with five small loaves and two fishes. 
Besides, Paul was a man of great purity of char- 
acter and life. He was simply a man in error. 
He " thought he was doing God's service." All 
that was necessary to make him a disciple of 
Jesus Christ, and fit to be an apostle, and an 
associate of apostles, was to change his convic- 
tions. That done, and his conversion to other 
views and other ways was complete. Is there not 
a wide difference between his case and that of a 
man who is wrong all the way through ? — who is 
not only wrong in theory, but in every particular 
of his life ? 

Here, for example, is an atheist. He knows 
not God, nor does he wish to know Him. He 
denies and spurns the Bible, and all churches. He 
has no faith in invincible virture, nor in instinctive 



120 



LIFE'S PBOBLEMS. 



honor and truthfulness, nor in natural goodness* 
If men or women are virtuous, honest, truthful 
God-fearing and man-loving, he believes it is 
because they are principled in selfishness, and 
conceive that their interest lies in that direction. 
Added to this, he is a liar, cheat, debauchee, 
drunkard, and what not that is low and wicked* 
Is such a person the peer of Paul before his con- 
version ? And for the conversion of such a per- 
son is nothing needful but a wayside vision, such 
as Paul had on his way to Damascus? To make 
him such as Paul was after the vision, is it simply 
necessary to change his convictions about the 
nature of sin, and the essential goodness and love 
of God ? If the method of Paul's conversion 
would successfully apply to the case of such per- 
son as we have supposed, it would be difficult to 
say why God withheld such saving grace in the 
case of a Nero, and the whole line of wicked per- 
secutors and oppressors of mankind. 

The difficulty, in such cases, is evidently too 
deep for such a method to be effectual. There are 
thousands of men and women, even in Christian 
lands, who know that sin is " exceedingly sinful,'* 
and its consequences intensely evil. They know, 
too, that God is " great in goodness," and that a 
good life is, every moment, better than a wicked 
life ; and yet they persist in sin and make no 
effort to change for the better. What such per- 



THE It WORLD ORDER. 



121 



sons need is not more light and experience, but 
an honest and efficient utilization of the expe- 
rience and light they now have. We are not 
excused for wrong doing on account of ignorance. 
The courts are daily pronouncing judgment against 
men, and inflicting punishment, because they 
know the difference between right and wrong, 
but persist in the wrong. It is a notorious fact that 
many of our worst criminals were children of 
pious parents, brought up in the church and care- 
fully educated. They are wicked, not from acci- 
dent, nor from hereditary descent, nor because of 
early wicked surroundings, but from choice. 
Who will venture to maintain that the accession 
of greater light and knowledge, without the aid of 
other agencies, would effect the redemption of 
that class of the wicked ? Those instrumentali- 
ties, alone, are not sufficient now, we know. Is 
there the slightest reason to believe that they 
would be sufficient hereafter ? There is not the 
slightest. 

The theory of uniform after-death glory is sup- 
posed to derive some support from what Paul 
says of the "glory of the stars," and his assertion 
that, " so also is the resurrection of the dead; " 
but so far as the analogy holds it bears heavily 
against the theory. The stars are not all alike, 
and their " glory " depends upon their magnitude 
and distance from the sun. Shall we say that the 



122 



LIFE'S PBOBLEMS. 



glory and moral splendor of souls in the heavens, 
depend upon the magnitude of their virtues, and 
their distance from the spiritual sun ? This, un- 
doubtedly, is true, and to this extent the analogy 
holds, and no further. 

An analogy, too, and for the same purpose, is 
drawn from the development of the butterfly 
from the chrysalis. A recent writer remarks, — 
" The material body, with its evil accumulations 
and suggestions, is put off at death, and a spirit- 
ual incorruptible body takes its place. How can 
a man dying in wickedness, continue to be wicked 
in such a body ? The unsightly worm is changed 
to a beautiful butterfly. Its capacities are en- 
larged, and it moves in a different sphere. It no 
longer crawls in filth, but flits from flower to 
flower, soars aloft in the light of heaven, and sub- 
sists on nectar. Is not this the essence of St. 
Paul's analogy touching the resurrection ? " 

O treacherous analogy ! We are glad to say 
Paul did not sanction it. Paul's analogy is 
drawn from sown grain, the different orders of 
nature, and the various glory of the stars, and is 
in answer to the question, " How are the dead 
raised up, and with what body do they come ? " 

The butterfly is, indeed, a thing of beauty to 
look upon; but, like many other beauties, its 
beauty is only skin deep. If it lived but to bask 
in sunshine, and subsist on nectar, it would be a 



OTHEB WORLD OB DEB. 



123 



fit type of the beautiful, harmless, and innocent ; 
but that lovely creature is literally a gilded maga- 
zine of destruction. Its body is packed with 
eggs, from which the multitudinous caterpillar will 
in due time, come forth to pray upon the vegetation 
of the farmer, and despoil the garden of its loveli- 
ness. Had God neglected to provide for its de- 
struction, on a large scale, in its larva state, the 
labor of the gardner and the husbandman would 
be in vain. The product of one female and her 
offspring in four years, is not less than eight 
thousand one hundred million ! A sad type, — 
if it be taken as a type, — of man's resurrection 
state ! 

What then ? Once rid of our material body, 
we shall undoubtedly be free from many encum- 
brances, pains and temptations, that now beset 
us ; but if one would think correctly of man in 
the world of spirits, it is essential to begin with 
the fact, that neither the material, nor the spirit- 
ual body is man ! Neglect to observe this fact, 
and to be governed by it, has been the prolific 
source of any amount of shallow theory and false 
reasoning. The body is not man. Man is 
" clothed upon " with " a spiritual body" that he 
may live in a spiritual world. 

Neither here, nor, there, is the body the seat of 
reason, conscience, will, nor of the affections, 
appetites, nor passions ; nor, indeed of any Intel- 



124 



LIFE'S PROBLEMS. 



lectual operation whatever. Their seat is in 
man, — reasoning, thinking, willing, consenting, 
immortal man ! 

Say that all impressions, influences, knowledges, 
come to the soul from without, through the body- 
as a medium, — but we know they do not, — is it 
the medium that gives character to the man, or 
the impression and influences that act through the 
medium ? Say that at death the material body 
is laid aside, and man invested with a spiritual 
body. What then? The man is the identical 
man after death that he was before death ! Did 
he die in wickedness ? Was it the body that was 
wicked, or was it the man ? Dying, he has simply 
moved out of his old house into a new one ; but 
he has not lost his identity. Was he John 
Smith? He is John Smith still, and for the 
time being, neither more nor less. If a very 
wicked man, his reason is perverted, conscience 
inactive, the will weak or vacillating, the moral 
senses more or less paralyzed, and all his tenden- 
cies towards doing and being, setting in wrong di- 
rections. How he shall behave, and what he shall 
become in his new house, and in the new land of 
his emigration, will depend on new surroundings, 
new influences, the element of time and the co- 
operation with these agencies of his understanding, 
conscience and will. He will gravitate to his 
kind ; but how long he shall abide as he is, no 



OTHER WOULD ORDER. 



125 



man can tell. One thing is certain : His freedom 
of choice, the pivot on which his future must 
forever turn, will not be violated. The good and 
bad alike will have perfect liberty to put to their 
highest use their best conceptions and attain- 
ments, to utilize their new surroundings, and 
make the most of their opportunities and new 
home. Once more " the world is all before them ; " 
where and how to choose, rests, next to God, 
with themselves ! 

At this stage of the investigation I grouped 
together the facts that I felt I had absolutely 
gained, and that were rationally undeniable : 

1. Man is man as to his spirit, and therefore 
lives as man after death. This fact is proven by 
a great mass of scientific and historical evidence, 
— notably by the appearance of Christ, Moses, 
Elias, and many others, who were seen as men, 
women, and children ; although in many cases, 
they had long been dead, — Moses, seven hundred 
years. 

2. The material body of man neither thinks, 
conceives, originates, wills, feels, or acts, of itself. 
Its manifestations, of whatever character, origi- 
nate with, and are dependent upon the spiritual 
man, woman, or child, within it. This is proven 
by the absolute cessation of all physical and 
intellectual manifestations, through its agency, 
after its death. 



126 



LIFE'S PBOBLEMS. 



3. Physical, intellectual, and moral manifesta- 
tions pertaining to man only as a spirit, therefore 
whatever is achieved or gained, — character good 
or bad, ignorance or intelligence, habit or ten- 
dency, — is the sole property of his spirit, and 
necessarily accompanies him after death. 

4. Character is not a physical, but a moral 
formation ; nor does a man loose his character by 
dying. 

5. Conditions of happiness or misery always 
attend on character; therefore conditions of 
happiness or misery attend a man after death. 

6. Character, attainments, tendencies, tastes, 
have almost infinite variety of gradation ; there- 
fore almost infinite gradation of happiness or 
misery attend on character. 

What further ? Other World Order is pred- 
icated on taste, tendency, attainment, character, 
put in their proper place. 

Let us advance a step and survey the prospect 
that lies before the vast populations of the world 
of souls thus organized. Let us look in upon 
the stage on which the purpose of God, with 
respect to our race, is now being played out. 



PROSPECTS. 



What the light of your mind, which is the direct inspiration 

of the Almighty, pronounces incredible, that in God's name, 
leave uncredited, at your peril do not try believing that.— 

Carlyle. 

If it were not for the hope that God would, at some future 
time, make us pure and holy, like unto himself, the most 
rational act we could do would be to fall down on our knees 
and ask him to strike us out of existence. But we need not 
fear. We are coming home together; for the Son of Man 
prayed that we be one. There is no escape for us. He will not 
let us go.— George Macdonali. 



CHAPTER X. 



PBOSPECTS. 

The postulate of the old theologies that " there 
is no change after death," I soon saw must be 
given up. It is so unreasonable, and so opposed 
to matter of fact, it is fair to assume that no 
earnest and competent thinker was ever satisfied 
with it. I saw its fallacy directly I gave it 
serious attention. For example : 

If one should die believing that " death ends 
all," would they experience no change of opinion 
on finding themselves still living ? 

If one should die an atheist, would he continue 
to eternity to believe there is no God ? 

Do the opinions of men on all subjects on 
which they hold opinions, remain absolutely un- 
changed after death ? 

Are the habits and pursuits of men unchanged 
after death? Do they continue in the same 
habits, and to follow the same pursuits ? 

If in these particulars there is change after 
death, then the assertion that there is no change 



130 



LIFE'S PBOBLEMS. 



is untrue. There is change ; and who shall ven- 
ture to set a limit to the change ? 

The following particulars of change certain to 
transpire after death, may be thus formulated : 

1. From ignorance of a future life, to a certain 
knowledge of a future life. 

2. From Atheism to Theism. 

3. From denial of moral responsibility, to a 
realization of moral responsibility. 

4. A radical change with regard to all false 
notions touching the nature and arrangements of 
the spiritual world, and of the character and con- 
ditions of the spiritual life. 

5. From false ideas of God, to true ideas of 
God. 

6. From liability to material fluctuations and 
imperfections, to a state of complete exemption 
from them. 

7. From liability to bodily disease, pains, and 
accidents, to a condition of non-liability. 

8. From ignorance, and perhaps denial, of the 
historical reality of certain eminent persons, and 
certain important events, to a knowledge and 
acknowledgement of their reality. 

It will be generally conceded, I doubt not, that 
change after death, to this extent, at least, is 
inevitable ; and to this extent the prospect is not 
an unpleasant one. What grounds for further 



PROSPECTS. 



131 



change remain? In the particulars specified 
there is not only a satisfactory base for further 
change, but a positive assurance that further 
change will be effected. 

Each step in advance is a certain introduction 
to another step. A single ray of light is a certain 
prelude to another ray. Once more I will venture 
to formulate certain undeniable facts : 

1. Man and immortality given, and we have a 
base for all that is possible to such a being as 
man. 

2. Intellect and opportunity given, and we have 
a base for education. 

3. Moral sense and conscience given, and we 
have a base for spiritual development. 

4. Seed and soil given, and we have a base for 
the future harvest. 

5. In the future man, woman, child, we have 
all these ; and, in addition to these, the new 
surroundings and influences of the spiritual 
world. 

6. After all is effected that a mere change of 
worlds can effect, what a vast margin for cease- 
less development and growth remain. To postu- 
late "no change after death" of such a creature 
as man, and in such a world as the after-death 
world, seems the very climax of absurdity. One 
might as well affirm the impossibility of running 



132 



LIFE'S PBOBLEMS. 



a completely equipped cotton-mill by steam, 
because it was once run by water ! 

The old theologies, now-a-days, predicate "no 
change after death " on " fixedness of character ; " 
and endless woe, on " endless sinning." But the 
proof of either proposition is as indefensible as 
the predicate. This is within demonstration. 

1. To assert fixedness of character after death, 
because a man dies a saint, or dies a sinner, is to 
assert what one does not know; and, in the 
nature of things, cannot know. 

2. To assert that because a man dies a sinner, 
he will therefore sin endlessly, is to assert that 
man was planned and made to sin, and that by 
sinning he is simply carrying out the original 
plan and purpose of his Creator. 

3. To assert that a man may become perma- 
nently fixed in sin, is to assert that fixedness in 
sin is the legitimate result of his constitution and 
surroundings. 

4. To assert fixedness in sin on the one hand, 
and fixedness in holiness on the other, is to assert 
that such results are a matter of indifference to 
the Creator ; that if all shall finally be fixed in 
sin He will be satisfied ; if all shall finally be 
fixed in holiness He will be satisfied; but no 
more in the one case than in the other ! 

These results legitimately, and unescapably, 



PROSPECTS. 



133 



follow from the assumed premises ; but they are 
abhorrent to reason, monstrous, and false on the 
face of them, and their practical application 
would be the certain destruction of morality. 
We may confidently dismiss the postulates of 
" no change after death, " and of " endless sin- 
ning," as having no standing in reason, nor in fact. 
What Revelation has to say about them will ap- 
pear further on. 

The postulate of Swedenborg makes sin, and 
its final abode hell, " essential constituents of 
the Cosmos. " A living, working universe, with- 
out these constituents, he maintained would be 
impossible. " There are " he tells us " as many 
hells as there are heavens. Each heavenly society 
has its opposite in some infernal society. The 
relation of heaven to hell, and of hell to heaven, 
is like that of two opposites which mutually 
act against each other, and whose action and 
reaction produce equilibrium, in which equilib- 
rium mankind subsist. Unless man were be- 
tween heaven and hell, he would have no 
power of thought, nor any will, and still less free- 
dom of choice ; for all things flow from the equi- 
librium between heaven and hell. On such equi- 
librium is founded the safety of all in the heavens, 
and of all on the earth ! " 

According to this postulate, — quite as much 
Magian in its essence as Swedenborgian, — 



134 



LIFE'S PBOBLEMS. 



heaven and hell rose into being simultaneously ; 
and hence there never was, and there never will 
be a time, when all men could be saved ! Build- 
ing heaven and hell, simultaneously, God could 
not, at any time, have proposed to save all men, 
nor have made, without a specific decree, the 
salvation of a single soul a certainty. Is there 
no occasion here to justify God for having 
created at all ? It would certainly seem so ; 
and especially as heaven and hell are necessary 
and ordained fixtures of the universe ! 

It seems puerile to plead, in defence of this 
scheme, that 44 God never casts any one into hell, " 
nor compels any one to stay in heaven, nor in 
anyway constrains the choice of anyone. Be it 
heaven, or be it hell, Swedenborg affirms that 
the choice is solely with man, and he alone must 
bear the responsibility. 

But is not God infinite in Wisdom and Good- 
ness ? Is he not Omnipotent ? — I asked. Is he 
not responsible, therefore, for final results? — 
inasmuch as he is Creator, and especially, the 
Creator described by Swedenborg, who is the 
life of all his creatures, and without whom 44 the 
devils of hell have no power ! " 44 All which man 
thinks and wills, " he declares, 44 is from the 
Lord; neither can the wicked think and will 
from any other origin ! " 

This being true, it is not at all difficult to fix 



PBOSPECTS. 



135 



the responsibility where it belongs. Whether 
on the " Evangelical, " or the Swedenborgian 
scheme of damnation, God is clearly responsible 
for the ultimate weal or woe of his creatures. If 
there be a permanent empire of iniquity in his 
universe, it will be because he chooses to have it 
so ; upholds it, and is its life ! True, to believe 
in a permanent empire of iniquity would cost a 
thoughtful man his confidence in God ; yea more, 
it would compel him to unlearn and forget his 
experience of Him ; a task an honest man would 
hesitate to undertake. 

Nor could I perceive that there is place in 
God's universe for permanent evil, in any form. 
The notion that " damnation is ineffectual, and 
that sinners continue in sin in defiance of 
punishment, and are whipped forever and ever, 
and forever in vain, ' ' has simply to be stated to 
recognize its egregious absurdity. To retain, or 
obtain belief in God, we must not lay him open 
to the charge of imbecility, or inefficiency ; nor 
of indifference, or malignity. 

No Rue de V Enfer, I said, sweeps through the 
celestial universe — the realm of souls — laid 
out, paved, swept, and kept in order by God ! 

No Maison cV Arret, filled with God's image, 
and run at the expense of the State, lifts forever 
its frowning walls outside the Celestial City ! 

No Hopital des Fous, endowed by the Al- 



136 



LIFE'S PROBLEMS. 



mighty, stands a perpetual monument of the im- 
perfection of his works, and of the unskilled and 
unsuccessful methods of the Physician of souls ! 

I said more than this ; and, so far as I can now 
see, with invincible logic. If evil in whatever form 
or in whatsoever it inhere, be not finally, and 
utterly, swept from the realm of souls, and the 
universe purified of its contamination, it must be 
from a defect in the Deity, and his Economy, 
which no rational person can believe exists. Two 
irreversible facts, — a majority that, in any case, 
cannot be overcome, — stand, and forever must 
stand, against such conclusion as involves per- 
petual evil — namely : God and Time ! There- 
fore evil is destined to absolute defeat. It is 
bound to come to an end. Its awful shadow is 
lessening, lessening, as the ages go by. Its bounds 
are set, and it cannot pass. Nor can devil arise in 
God's dominions — tangible or intangible — but 
has decreed beforehand for him the length of his 
rope ! At all times, and in all places, all things 
permanently real, are waging against him inter- 
necine war. " Every thing but Love and Truth 
is superficial, and perishes, and these must even- 
tually triumph over all ! " Such is the verdict of 
Reason. " Every plant that my heavenly Father 
hath not planted, shall be rooted up ! " Such is 
the verdict of Revelation. 

There is, then a star of hope, set in the future, 



PBOSPECTS. 



137 



for the realm of souls in both worlds. All is in 

process, — all is in movement. " Of Him, and 
through Him, and to Him, are all things ; to 
whom be glory forever ! " 



FANTASY. 



Sense can support herself handsomely, in most countries, for 
some eighteen pence a day ; but for Fantasy planets and solar- 
systems will not suffice. Fantasy, with her mystic wonderland, 
plays into the small prose-domain of sense, and becomes incor- 
porated therewith.— Carlyle. 

We have learnt that there are no waste products in nature ; 
why should we hesitate over a similar conclusion as to men 
and women? — William White. 



CHAPTER XL 



FANTASY. 

Once delivered from the "no change after 
death " theory of the old theologies, and the 
endless dualism of Swedenborg, one having no 
penchant for theological speculation would nat- 
urally suppose that the way was clear for a 
discussion of ultimate results. I had, indeed, so 
concluded; when a friend to whom I had read 
the foregoing chapter, enunciated the terrible 
word, " Annihilation ! " He reminded me that 
there is a third party in the field, who, uneasy 
over the doctrine of ceaseless damnation, have 
accepted the notion of the annihilation of the 
wicked as the more agreeable idea. Many per- 
sons of the highest reputation for wisdom and 
piety, in all ages of the church, rather than 
believe that God's love for his children, and his 
efficient working for their repentance and resto- 
ration to holiness and happiness, are confined to 
the brief term of a human life, and that failing 
in this He will spend eternity in idleness, or, 



142 



LIFE'S PROBLEMS. 



what is worse, in making them miserable and 
accursed, have preferred to believe that he will 
annihilate the " incorrigibly wicked," and so 
make an end of them altogether, — much as an 
angry boy, failing to make his plaything what he 
wishes, dashes or tramples it to destruction. 
This notion has a manifest growth in the church 
to-day. It results not merely from a sentimental, 
but from a rational revolt at the assertion of 
ceaseless torment. The ceaseless unmitigated 
torment of even one poor mouse would be, to 
most people, unendurable ; but they might be 
brought to consent that the mouse should be put 
an end to by a single stroke. 

Thomas Paine, the author of The Age of 
Reason, singularly enough, was an annihilationist. 
With characteristic bluntness he thus states his 
belief : 

" My own opinion is, that those whose lives 
have been spent in doing good, and endeavoring 
to make their fellow mortals happy, (for this is 
the only way in which we can serve God), will be 
happy hereafter; and that the very wicked will 
meet with some punishment. But those who are 
neither good nor bad, or who are too insignificant 
to notice, will be dropt entirely. This is my 
opinion. It is consistent with my idea of God's 
justice, and with the reason God has given me." 

It is an amusing fact, nevertheless, that Paine 



FANTASY. 



143 



does not rest his belief in annihilation on his 
sense of justice, nor on the authority of reason, 
but on the authority of the Scriptures he saw fit 
to deride ! He refers to the parable of the king 
in judgment, where the whole world is divided 
into two parts, the righteous and the wicked. 
u One part of the world," he says, "is not all 
good alike, nor the other part all wicked alike. 
There are some exceedingly good ; others exceed- 
ingly wicked. There is another description of 
men who cannot be ranked with either the one or 
the other. They belong neither to the sheep nor 
the goats ; and there is still another description 
of them, who are so very insignificant both in 
character and conduct, as not to be worth the 
trouble of damning or saving, or raising from the 
dead." 

Those in the christian church, who, like Thomas 
Paine, believe in the annihilation of the wicked, 
also rest their belief on the Scriptures ; but, 
unlike Paine, they believe that all will be raised 
from the dead, the wicked punished for a season, 
and then annihilated. 

With much painstaking I went through the 
texts cited to support this notion. I found that, 
consistently and fairly interpreted, they yield no 
such meaning. Great stress is laid on such 
words as die — death — destruction — perish, etc.; 
but these words occur in the New Testament in 



144 



LIFE'S PBOBLEMS. 



several senses. What seems to be conclusive as 
to their irrelevancy to the annihilation theory, is 
the fact that not once do they occur in the sense 
of the endless extinction of conscious existence 
when used concerning intelligent beings ! Those 
who rely in matters of faith wholly upon the 
Scriptures, ought to be satisfied with this. 

But suppose the reverse of this be true ; sup- 
pose the notion of annihilation could be fairly 
proven from the Scriptures ; of what avail would 
that be if reason stood frowning over against it ? 
Scripture, to be worth anything, must have the 
unhesitating verdict of reason in verification. 
When in search of truth, one makes little head- 
way towards real satisfaction until he has allied 
himself with rational or scientific processes. A 
" thus saith the Lord " is very assuring ; but it 
receives wonderful support when reason and 
science concur. In this case reason and science 
do not concur. I found, indeed, that the rational 
argument against the annihilation theory was 
positively overwhelming. It may be summarized 
thus : 

1. If all men are exposed to annihilation, — 
which must be the case if the theory be true, — 
then all men should have provided them an equal 
chance of escape. The absolute Justice cannot 
show partiality. In a common peril there should 
be no advantage given to one over another. 



FANTASY. 



145 



But if salvation from annihilation be confined 
to the present life, advantage is given to one over 
another, and all do not have an equal chance of 
escape ! 

Between heathen and christian people are the 
chances of escape equal ? In the horrible king- 
dom of Dahomey, where the negro king slaughters 
thousands of his subjects to avert a threatened 
catastrophe, or to celebrate his birthday, are the 
opportunities of salvation as great as those now 
enjoyed by the people of the United States, or of 
England ? 

In civilized christian countries the majority of 
children are born of comparatively ignorant, and 
often desperately wicked parents, and reared 
amidst low and wicked surroundings. Will it be 
pretended that the chances of salvation of such 
children are equal to those enjoyed by children 
born of educated, refined, and virtuous parents, 
and reared in refined and virtuous society ? 

There are also, among all classes, marked dif- 
ferences of temperament, tendencies, and of 
intellectual and moral capacity. One is a natural 
believer; another a natural sceptic. One is 
easily affected by an appeal to the feelings; 
another is cold, stolid, indifferent. One is easily 
convinced, and may be moulded at will ; another 
can scarcely be moulded into anything. 

These contrasts might be greatly extended — 



146 



LIFE'S PBOBLEMS. 



almost, indeed, beyond count ; but these are suf- 
ficient to show conclusively that opportunities for 
salvation are not afforded equally in this life, 
neither to individuals nor to classes. The abso- 
lute Justice, therefore, — if there be an absolute 
Justice, — must, and does, extend the term of 
opportunity into the future state. And this effect- 
ually bars the notion of certain annihilation. 

2. But who is this creature, I asked, that God 
does not hesitate to expose to the peril of anni- 
hilation? — or, perhaps, to a peril infinitely 
worse ! Hear, O heavens, and give ear O earth ! 
No less a creature than His own child! " created 
in His own image," endowed with His attributes, 
and capable of living, improving, and being 
unspeakably happy forever ! Could a more 
severe accusation be made against "the Father 
of the spirits of all flesh? " 

We do not press the question, — what defense 
has God to offer for thus exposing His child ? — 
although that question is obviously pertinent, — 
but we do ask : what reason has God to give for 
terminating the existence of a creature so richly 
endowed, and so sensitive to both pain and 
pleasure, after a trial so brief as to amount 
to a farce ? 

Measure the difference, if it be possible, be- 
tween the term of an earthly life and of an 



FANTASY. 



147 



endless life. The majority of mankind die in 
infancy and childhood, and the majority of adults 
do not reach the age of sixty years. How brief 
a term of trial, if on its results such tremendous 
consequences are suspended ! How devoid of 
fatherly affection thus to expose one's offspring ! 
How reckless of the most splendid faculties and 
possibilities ! The " Father of spirits " casts 
into the gulf of annihilation a creature "little 
lower than the angels ! " Surely, this is fantasy, 
and nothing but fantasy; and reason enters an 
emphatic protest against it. 

3. But it was urged in defense of this notion, 
that " some men become fixed in sin," and that 
their reformation is impossible. They are worth- 
less chips in God's universe, and may as well be 
burned up. This, too, is fantasy. 

It is within our observation, that sinners of the 
darkest dye, sometimes, when near the close of a 
long life, repent and reform. Nor is it denied by 
annihilationists that, in the words of Dr. Watts, 

" While the lamp holds out to burn 
The vilest sinner may return. " 

There is not a particle of experience to sustain the 
assertion that " fixedness in sin " is even possible ! 
— a fixedness that cannot be overcome. Where 



148 



LIFE'S PROBLEMS. 



are the examples that justify such a theory? 
There are none ; and in the very nature of the 
ease an example is impossible. 

4. Moreover : I perceived that not only is the 
justice and fatherhood of God impugned by the 
notion of annihilation, but also His wisdom and 
honor. If some men become so " fixed in sin" 
as to be insusceptible to "the ordinary means of 
grace," God would be justified in resorting to a 
miracle to effect their reformation and salvation. 
Why should God employ a miracle to convert 
St. Paul, and leave other men to " the ordinary 
means of grace," and finally annihilate them? 
"Are not my ways equal? saith the Lord." 
Grant all that was peculiar in the case of Paul ; 
grant that he was not, as he described himself, 
" the chief of sinners ; " grant that he was con- 
verted by miraculous interposition; grant all 
this, and much more, if need be, and who, then, 
will venture to say, that, among the hosts of 
sinners who have entered the spiritual world, 
there was not even one who might not have been 
saved by the means that saved Paul? — by a 
miraculous interposition ! Once grant that the 
story of Paul's conversion is true history, and the 
annihilation of a single soul is forever made 
impossible by the absolute Justice, and the 
absolute Impartiality, or Honor ! 



FANTASY. 



149 



5. But annihilation is absolutely barred by 
historical fact. It is an historical fact that the 
resurrection of the dead is a daily occurrence, 
and therefore should not be anticipated as a 
future simultaneous event, " Now that the dead 
are raised," said Jesus, "even Moses showed at 
the bush, when he called the Lord, the God of 
Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of 
Jacob; for He is not a God of the dead, but of 
the living ; for all live unto him" These words 
have no meaning unless it be concluded that 
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had attained the 
spiritual world through a resurrection from their 
dead bodies, and were then living. Nor should 
it be overlooked that Jesus bars the possibility of 
those dying again, who have attained a resurrec- 
tion from the dead, with the emphatic assertion, 
— " they are equal unto the angels, neither can 
they die anymore!" So far as Revelation is 
concerned, this surely is conclusive. 

6. In the current language of the Bible, after 
the death of the body, " There shall be no more 
death," — O death I will be thy plagues ; O hell 
I will be thy destruction," — " O death where is 
thy sting? O death where is thy victory?" — 
" He shall swallow up death in victory, and wipe 
away tears from off all faces," — " When this cor- 
ruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this 
mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall 



150 



LIFE'S PBOBLEMS. 



be brought to pass the saying that is written, — 

death is swallowed up in victory ! " 

I was not slow to perceive that the notion of 
annihilation is in flat contradiction of reason, 
Scripture, and historical fact. Indeed, I per- 
ceived that the remotest possibility of annihilation 
could arise only from a single dread alternative. 
If the alternative was forced upon a good God, 
or even upon a good man, to decide whether to 
annihilate a soul, or punish it endlessly, and for 
no end of use to any creature, I cannot doubt 
that the decision would be to annihilate. But, 
thank God, such dread alternative can never 
arise ! 

The human race began in unity. From the 
beginning it has developed and moved towards 
the immortal life as a whole. It has entered, 
and is entering the immortal life as a whole ; and 
its prospects, from thenceforward, must be deter- 
mined as a whole, and not in fragmentary parts. 
Whatever goal it shall ultimately reach, it will 
be as an immortal unit. Ultimately wretched or 
ultimately happy, is sure to be the unescapable 
result! "For whether one member suffer, all 
suffer with it; or one member rejoice, all re- 
joice with it ! " Who can for a moment doubt 
which it will be, — universal sorrow, or universal 



FANTASY. 151 

Let us go forward for our answer. Let us 
have done with fantasy. 



Note. The curious reader may be interested to learn that the 
notion of the annihilation of the wicked can be traced back to 
ancient Egypt, at least. It was the belief of the ancient Egyp- 
tians that the wicked were condemned to transmigrate to the 
bodies of animals, and thus given another chance. But if, after 
many trials, a wicked soul proved incurable, he was con- 
demned to absolute annihilation upon the steps of heaven, by 
Shu, the Lord of Light. 



RESULTS. 



I ask not how remote the day, 

Nor what the sinner's woe, 
Before the dross is purged away; 

Enough for me, to know 
That when the cup of wrath is drained, 

The metal purified, 
They'll cling to what they once disdained, 

And live by Him that died. 

Emily Bronte. 

I can but trust that good shall fall 
At last — far off — at last, to all, 
And every winter change to spring. 

Tennyson. 



CHAPTER XIL 



RES ULTS. 

No longer troubled with the theories of utter 
incertitude, discussed in the two preceding chap- 
ters, I experienced an inexpressible sense of relief. 
The way to go forward was now clear, and for 
several months I gave undivided attention to the 
problem of the nature of the goal our race, as a 
unit, is destined to reach. 

Not holiness and happiness without exception, 
I said, immediately after death ; nor final partner- 
ship in the ownership of souls between two antag- 
onistic sovereign powers, — the one exceedingly 
good, and the other exceedingly evil, — in other 
words between God and Satan. It was self-evi- 
dent that God, if He be God, never can tolerate a 
permanent rival within the sphere of his author- 
ity ; and as for his sharing, permanently, the 
ownership of souls with Satan, the idea was too 
preposterous to claim consideration. A perma- 
nent rival of the Absolute First Cause ! If it 
were possible, the alleged Omnipotence of God 



156 



LIFE'S PBOBLEMS. 



would at once be relegated to the category of 
myths. 

The old Jewish prophets never fell into the 
snare of dualism. They asserted God's supre- 
macy in all places, seasons and events. They af- 
firmed : " He doeth according to his will in the 
army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the 
earth, and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, 
What doest thou?" They styled him, "The 
Lord God Almighty," — " The Lord God Omnip- 
otent," — " The Great, the Mighty God," — 
"The Lord God, the God of all Flesh." 

They moreover affirmed, " There is nothing 
too hard for God," — - " There is no restraint 
to the Lord to save by many, or by few," — 
"Through the greatness of Thy power shall 
Thine enemies submit themselves unto Thee," 
His council shall stand, and he will do all his 
pleasure." 

The biographers of Jesus, with true Jev/ish 
blood in their veins, loyally followed their 
prophets. Their words are quite as significant, 
— "There is nothing impossible with God," — 
" The things that are impossible with men, are 
possible with God." — " With God all things are 
possible." 

Paul, the chief and ablest of the apostles, and 
perfectly familiar with Jewish and Gentile 
thought, bears similar testimony, — " Now to the 



RESULTS. 



157 



King Eternal, Immortal, Invisible, the only Wise 
God, be glory and honor forever ! " — " Of Him, 
and to Him, and through Him, are all things ! " 
— " He is able to subdue all things to Himself ! " 

This phase of Theism not only runs through 
both Testaments, but is a marked feature in the 
religious books of all nations. In the Brahme 
Sutra of the Hindus, it is said : " Every at- 
tribute of a First Cause exists in Brahma." In 
the Y-King, of the Chinese, we read, " Tien 
holds in his hands the issue of things." In the 
Avesta of the ancient Persians, Ahura-Mazda is 
called " The Creator of the earthly and spiritual 
life, the Lord of the whole universe, in whose 
hands are all the creatures." In the Bundahesh, 
an early commentary on the Avesta, Ahura-Mazda 
is said to finally destroy Angro-Mainyush, the 
author of all evil, and reconcile all men unto 
Himself. 

In the nature of things, then, God cannot 
tolerate a partnership, nor a permanent rival. 
He acts from motives wholly within himself ; 
and, as we have said elsewhere, he cannot be 
coerced. The following propositions, therefore, 
seemed self-evident and capable of enduring the 
severest scrutiny: 

1. God created such a world as this is, because 
he chose to create it. 



158 



LIFE'S PBOBLEMS. 



2. He preserves such a world as this is, because 
he freely chooses to preserve it. 

3. If all, or a part of mankind be ultimately 
annihilated, or a part be endlessly happy, and a 
part be endlessly miserable, or all be made holy 
and happy, it will be because he chooses to have 
it so ; and such result is in strict line with his 
purpose. 

4. What the result shall be, depends solely on 
his Omnipotence, united to his intellectual and 
moral capacity ! 

These propositions do not absolutely settle the 
result, but they furnish a stand-point from which 
the result may be determined with mathematical 
certainty. The process, I perceived, involved an 
answer to the following questions : 

1. What is the nature of God's Intellectual and 
Moral faculties? 

2. To what results do they naturally tend, good, 
or evil ? 

3. Are they certain to guide His Omnipotence 
to the accomplishment of results of unmixed 
evil ? Or of mixed evil and good ? Or of un- 
mixed good ? 

4. Will the result, in any event, be consistent 
with Supreme Benevolence ? 



RESULTS. 



159 



It was evident that in one, or both of two ways, 
— one Rational the other Scriptural, — a satisfac- 
tory answer to these questions might be attained. 
I will have both, I said. I sought for the 
Rational answer first : 

1. I was familiar with the fact that the mate- 
rial world has been the theatre of development 
and busy improvement from its beginning ; and, 
I soon perceived, that, at no period of its history 
has God employed His Omnipotence in the 
furtherance of evil in any of its forms. Under 
the guidance of His intellectual and moral powers, 
His Omnipotence has been steadily engaged in 
promoting the best good of all his creatures. 
Barbarism is rapidly disappearing before civiliza- 
tion, slavery is vanishing in the presence of free- 
dom, ignorance is yielding to knowledge, error to 
truth, and sin to righteousness. If improvement 
shall go on for a thousand years to come at only 
its past ratio, it is easy to perceive that, at no 
comparatively distant period, the predictions of 
the old prophets and seers will be realized : 
" And the earth shall be full of the knowledge of 
the Lord as the waters cover the sea : " " And 
the seventh angel sounded, and there were great 
voices in Heaven saying, The kingdoms of this 
world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and 
of His Christ." 



160 



LIFE '8 PBOBLEMS. 



But the ratio of past progress is no just measure 
of future success. Improvement ever accelerates. 
Intelligence and truth are steadily advancing, 
while ignorance and error are as steadily weaken- 
ing and diminishing. There is evidently an irre- 
sistible power, under wise control and guidance, 
regenerating mankind. The world, in every as- 
pect, is an inharmonious world, and, in the nature 
of things, it cannot forever remain inharmonious. 
It is an axiom of philosophy, that every school- 
boy learns, that forces, out of equilibrium, must 
ultimately adjust themselves, and when two op- 
posing forces meet, the stronger is certain to 
triumph. The material world is as certain to be 
reduced to order, as its past historical develop- 
ment and progress towards that result is undeni- 
able. The social world is as certain to be reduced 
to order, and upon the highest possible plain of 
intellectual and spiritual unfolding, as its ascent 
from barbarism, to its grand achievements in civil- 
ization, indicate a mathematical series that can 
neither be diverted nor permanently interrupted 
until it shall have reached its legitimate goal. I 
could not fail to perceive that these facts can 
have but one meaning : God is gradually, amidst 
convulsions of nature, and throes of social anguish, 
removing all manner of evil from the world of 
matter and the world of souls, and bringing " the 
whole creation " into harmony with Himself. 



BESULTS. 



161 



This is the noble result foreseen by the seers and 
sung by the poets of all ages. 

Oriental writers, together with the Greeks and 
Romans, foresaw a golden age for the earth. 
Wild beasts grow tame, serpents and poisonous 
herbs grow harmless or cease to exist, and all is 
peace, and plenty, and happiness. Thus Virgil : 

" The serpents' brood shall die. The sacred ground 
Shall weeds and noxious plants refuse to bear." 

Again : 

" The nightly wolf that round th ? enclosure prowled 
To leap the fence, now plots not on the fold ; 
Tamed with a sharper pain, the fearful doe, 
And flying stag, amidst the greyhounds go, 
And round the dwellings roam, of man the former 
foe." 

So too Horace : 

"No evening bears the sheep-fold growl around, 
Nor mining vipers heave the tainted ground." 

To the same effect Ferdusi : 

"Mahmoud the powerful king, the ruler of the 
world, 

To whose tank the wolf and the lamb come together 
to drink." 

Also Ibn Onein : 

" Through the influence of righteousness the hun- 
gry wolf 



162 



LIFE'S PBOBLEMS. 



Becomes mild, tho ? in the presence of the white 
kid." 

The great Jewish prophet, Isaiah, centuries pre- 
viously, predicted an ultimate prevalence of truth 
and righteousness, and complete harmony between 
the earth and man, — " The wolf also shall dwell 
with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down 
with the kid ; and the calf, and the young lion, 
and the f atling together ; and a little child shall 
lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed ; 
their young shall lie down together. They shall 
not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain ; for 
the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the 
Lord, as the waters cover the sea." 

An English poet has set this prediction in the 
following beautiful paraphrase : 

" Beneath the trees that spread their cooling shade 

The spotted leopard walks ; the ox is there ; 

The yellow lion stands, in conscious might, 

Breathing the dewy and illumined air. 

A little child doth take him by the mane, 

And leads him forth, and plays beneath his breast ; 

Naught mars the harm'ny of that peaceful reign, 

Naught breaks the quiet of that blissful rest. 

Picture divine, and emblem of that day, 

When peace on earth shall hold unbounded sway." 

These quotations might be greatly extended, 



BESULTS. 



163 



but these will suffice to show the general tenor of 
uninspired and inspired thought. 

Now then, 1 said, we have a ground- work of 
fact, made up from the history of development 
and progress in the present life, from which, not 
merely to conjecture, but absolutely to deduce the 
ultimate state of souls in the life to come. For 
who can believe that the infinite attributes of the 
Almighty, so active here, are quiescent in the 
world of souls? Is God doing everything for 
this world and nothing for the world of souls ? 
Is He doing everything to exterminate sin and 
evil here, and nothing to exterminate them there? 

As a matter of fact, it is impossible for God to 
be quiescent so long as an antagonist to Himself 
or His government exists within his dominions. 
It is an urgent necessity with God — a necessity 
that inheres in Himself — to reduce to harmony the 
realm of matter and the realm of souls. What- 
ever the condition of the world of souls, God is 
operating there, — helped by all good men and 
women who have gone thither ; by " the spirits of 
just men made perfect ; " by multitudes of holy 
angels ; by the punishments that sin inflicts ; by 
sorrow and regret ; by the desire to rise to better 
states and better things ; by the silent but potent 
influence of new surroundings, — to secure per- 
fect order and harmony, perfect holiness and 
happiness ! With the attainment of less than 



164 



LIFE'S PROBLEMS. 



this it is impossible God should be satisfied. 
With less than this He cannot be at peace with 
Himself, nor appease the demands of His moral 
nature. No plea of intractability of matter, or 
spirit, will do. It must be forever useless, and in- 
admissible at the bar of common sense, for he who 
makes, to attempt to shift the responsibility of 
failure upon the thing or creature made ! It is a 
transaction that will not bear the light ! 

Illustrative of the conclusion here reached, a 
conversation I held, about this time, with a re- 
markably sharp Scotch Presbyterian clergyman, 
is quite in point. It was what military men call, 
" short, sharp, and decisive." 

If less than all men shall ultimately be saved 
from their sins, I asked, will God be satisfied 
with the result ? Bearing in mind, I continued, 
that lie desired, and made effort, to save all. 

S. P. " Yes, He will." 

If but one half of mankind shall ultimately be 
saved, will He be satisfied with the result ? 

S. P. " Yes, undoubtedly." 

If but one fourth of mankind shall ultimately 
be saved, will he be as well satisfied as if all were 
saved ? 

S. P. " Not as well satisfied." 

But that will not do, I replied. The Infinite 
is incapable of gradations of feeling. He is satis- 
fied to the full extent of His capacity, or He is 



RESULTS. 



165 



not satisfied at all. The idea of more, or less, is 
inadmissible when speaking of the Infinite. 

Again, I asked, pushing the point involved to 
an unescapable result, — If, finally, not a single 
soul shall be saved, might we now truthfully say, 
in view of such result, of God, or of J esus Christ, 
in the language of the prophet, — " He shall see 
of the travail of his soul to be satisfied ? " 

No direct answer, and the subject was dropped, 
Let us go on. It is certain then, that God is 
not quiescent in the world of souls. It is certain, 
too, that the same classes that exist here, having 
the same need of improvement, in every respect, 
exist there ; and that progress there as here goes 
forward through similar instrumentalities. To 
this conclusion we are irresistibly driven by facts 
and reasons already adduced ; but, independent 
of any peculiarity of theological opinion touching 
the world of souls, it must be conceded that, 
among its vast populations there are individuals 
and classes that need, and should have, reproof, 
instruction and correction in righteousness, that 
they may be thoroughly furnished unto all good 
works ; and is it not obvious that the intellectual 
and moral attributes of God cannot overlook nor 
refuse the appeal of this need? Look at the 
facts : 

1. Nearly one half the human race die in in- 



166 



LIFE'S PBOBLEMS. 



fancy. They enter the spiritual world weak, 
helpless, ignorant of themselves, and of pretty 
much everything else they need to know. Unde- 
veloped physically, mentally, spiritually, they 
need there, as much as they needed here, the con- 
stant care and instruction of parents, or of those 
competent to care for them. Are they neglected, 
and left to shift for themselves ? Said Jesus : 
" It is not the will of my Father that one of these 
little ones should perish." " Their angels do ever 
behold the face of my Father which is in heaven." 
These motherless immortals are undoubtedly cared 
for, and carefully trained up to the beauty and 
glory of immortal manhood and womanhood ; in 
a word, to an equality with the angels. Thou- 
sands of mothers are entering the spirit-world, 
whose hearts yearn for the little ones they left 
behind them ; why should they not find solace in 
the adoption and care of some little spirit-orphan 
whose parents, perhaps for long years to come, 
must remain on the earth? And something 
more than solace ; for what can be more congenial, 
and indispensable to their future happiness than 
the charge of these helpless innocents? How 
often here a bereaved mother finds comfort and 
solace in the adoption of some motherless babe. 
Many a sorrowing mother would be resigned to 
her bereavement, could she be made to realize 
that her helpless infant is loved and cared for, in 



EES UL TS. 



167 



the world immortal, by some mother in whom the 
love of little children is a deathless passion. 
Mothers have died resignedly, and peacefully, be- 
cause assured that their little ones w r ould be 
treated tenderly, and provided with everything 
necessary for their health, education, and happi- 
ness. We must believe that the care, education, 
physical and moral training of little children, is 
a marked feature of the after-death life. From 
no other point of view can we successfully vindi- 
cate the moral justice and benevolence of God. 

2. Nor is this all. There is another large class 
in the world of souls, that needs, must have, and 
do have, the help of others more advanced and 
capable than themselves. They are the mentally 
and spiritually helpless. Only a small section of 
the globe is the theatre of civilization, with its at- 
tendant advantages of christian truth, and of 
literary and scientific culture. Grant that the 
majority who enter the spirit-world, from semi- 
barbarous countries, are honest and conscientious, 
according to their light and means of light ; and 
yet it must be conceded that they need enlighten- 
ment and training, in manifold ways, as greatly 
as do little children. They are children, intel- 
lectually and spiritually, and they need instruc- 
tion that shall cover the entire field of their 
possible development. They are ignorant of the 
true God, of J esus Christ, of truth that saves the 



168 



LIFE'S PBOBLEMS. 



soul, of truth that feeds and enlarges the mind, of 
truth that expands and fertilizes the heart, and 
of all scientific truth, without a knowledge of 
which a man's life cannot be made complete, nor 
his character perfect. A heaven of mere igno- 
rant goodies t — who could endure its insipidity 
and barrenness for a thousand years; to say 
nothing of an eternity ; and not wish himself else- 
where ! Besides, if the vast populations of the 
ignorant were allowed to remain in their igno- 
rance, class-distinctions would necessarily ensue, 
and the feelings engendered by class-distinctions ; 
and perfect order and contentment would be im- 
possible. The education, therefore, of these ig- 
norant, undeveloped populations, is an impera- 
tive necessity. And in this great work such 
spirits as are typified by Robert Raikes, George 
Miiller, Henry Pestalozzi, the volunteer teachers 
of night-schools, ragged-schools, Sunday-schools, 
and the like, find an appropriate field for their 
genius, and the realization of their aspirations for 
the advancement of their fellow-men. There such 
men as Humbolt, Newton, Herschel, Ritter, Hugh 
Miller, Faraday, Linnaeus, — men profound in 
knowledge and apt to teach, — will have free and 
full scope for their ability, and joyfully appre- 
ciative audiences to attend on their instruction. 
The saints of all ages ; the great preachers and 
priests, whose hearts were in accord with right- 



RESULTS. 



169 



eousness 3 noble self-sacrificing missionaries, who 
counted not their life dear ; find there a field for 
their best efforts ; spirits to liberate from the 
gloomy prisons of ignorance and sin, souls to save. 
From age to age the work has gone on, and will 
continue to go on, until " the whole creation shall 
be delivered from the bondage of corruption into 
the glorious liberty of the children of God ; " for 
such is the verdict of pure reason, and the sub- 
stance of both prophecy and promise. 

3. And there is yet another class in the spirit- 
world who need help ; namely, the desperately 
wicked. This class is comparatively small. The 
great majority of men and women are not des- 
perately wicked. I thought over the circle of my 
acquaintance, and the people I had met, and I 
could not say that I knew anyone who was des- 
perately wicked, or wicked from interior choice. 
Are not such cases suppositions rather than real? 
Wholly wicked no one is or can be ; inasmuch as 
no one lives who is not a receptacle of life from 
the Lord ; and life from the Lord cannot flow into 
and abide in anything ivholly unlike, or ivholly 
antagonistic to itself! Shut away, they may be, 
from those different from and better than them- 
selves ; but even in the desperately wicked there 
must still be a foundation for the possible devel- 
opment of a better life. The pivotal question, 
therefore, is : Shall this class of persons be con- 



170 



LIFE'S PBOBLEMS. 



fined and left to fester eternally in their wicked- 
ness — all the while growing worse and more 
intense in wickedness, as fixity of state is abso- 
lutely impossible — or shall they be disciplined 
and tutored into paths of duty and ways of 
righteousness, and be finally saved? To shut 
forever away from saving influences any class of 
immortals, however wicked, and, without benefit 
to themselves or to others, compel them to con- 
tinue in wickedness, would be shocking to reason, 
abhorrent to all right feeling, and in direct con- 
tradiction to the known character and purpose of 
God ! It would be contrary to the genius of 
Christianity, to the spirit of the age, and to the 
spirit, we may believe, that prevails and rules in 
heaven ! Here the words of Whittier came forci- 
bly to mind. They breathe the spirit of the 
Master, and deserve to be framed in gold: 

. " . . . Thank God ! 
The truth begins at last to find 
An utterance from the deep heart of mankind; 
Earnest and clear ; that all revenge is crime ! 
That man is holier than a creed. That all 
Restraint upon him must consult his good ; 
Hope's sunshine linger on his prison wall, 
And love look in upon his solitude." 

To educate, then, this class of immortals, and 
effect their deliverance from ignorance, sinful dis- 



BESULTS. 



171 



positions, and consequent sinful habits of thought 
and life, must afford a sphere of labor for " the 
friend of sinners," Jesus Christ; for the holy 
angels, who are their brothers ; for such spirits 
as John Howard, Charles Spear, Dorothy Dix 
and Florence Nightingale. It is impossible that 
men and women who spent their lives in hospitals, 
prisons and criminal court-rooms, should be con- 
tent in the heavens, any more than they were 
upon the earth, while from prisons of ignorance 
and sin the wretched condition of lost souls is 
appealing to them for help ! 

I could not bring myself to think of Howard, 
Spear, Garrison, Dix, Parker, Nightingale, and 
a great host of like men and women whom the 
world now delights to honor, reclining at ease in 
Paradise, or playing on golden harps, with serene 
indifference to the sufferings of those who have 
stumbled and fallen into the pit ! 

One of two things must inevitably be true : 
Either these men and women, and such as these, 
are engaged in rejoicing at their own escape from 
ceaseless misery, regardless of the sufferings of 
others, or else they are engaged in the more con- 
genial and praiseworthy work of assisting their 
unfortunate brothers to rise from their miserable 
states to light, life, and heaven ! 

I could not hesitate a moment to accept the 
alternative thus presented. Work, I said, gen- 



172 



LIFE' 8 PBOBLEMS. 



erous, efficient, christian work, in behalf of God's 
needy and suffering children, must blissfully 
employ, at least, a portion of the time, energy, 
and wisdom of all the blessed. 

The result here reached brought intellectual 
comfort; and with comfort came u joy and peace 
in believing." For a single moment, the curtain, 
that veils from our mortal eyes the heavenly 
world, lifted, and in the heaven of heavens I saw 
suspended above the throne the Great Command- 
ment of the Lav/ and the Gospel, " Thou shalt 
love thy neighbor as thyself/ " 

I now felt that I was authorized to assert the 
following propositions : 

1. God is Omnipotent in power. 

2. His power is controlled by His Intellectual 
and Moral faculties — that is to say, by His 
Wisdom and Goodness. 

3. He cannot, therefore, tolerate a permanent 
evil. 

4. Guided by His Intellectual and Moral facul- 
ties, He will remove and exterminate evil. 

5. As means to its removal and extermination, 
He employs discipline, education, and all necessary 
moral and spiritual influences. 

6. The object — harmony and oneness of all 
things with Himself — is so pursued, and the 
work so successfully carried on, in both worlds, 
that the result is certain. 



BESULTS. 



173 



7. Past achievements are an assurance of final 
triumph. 

Such is the verdict of reason! Why not 
pause here, I said, and go no further ? Reason 
needs no support from without ; why carry the 
case to another tribunal ? Most men respect the 
verdict of reason ; but christian people are apt to 
feel the need of additional support from Rev- 
elation. Reason and Revelation, when their final 
verdict is made up, have always been found to be 
in perfect agreement. It is well for Revelation 
that they are not in conflict ; for the day has 
gone by when Revelation could be made to stand 
against Reason, and command the credence of 
sensible and educated people. It should be re- 
membered, moreover, that Revelation has re- 
ceived from Reason its strongest supports and 
defences. When the two are united touching 
any one thing, their testimony is sure to prevail. 
Are they united in the verdict rendered, as we 
have seen, by Reason ? We shall see. 

II. Voices that reach us from the remotest 
depths of antiquity are often the vehicle of 
immortal truth. When crushed, fallen, ruined, 
God did not leave even the earliest of mankind 
ignorant of His purpose. He comforted Adam 
and Eve with the assurance that the mischief sin 



174 



LIFE'S PBOBLEMS. 



had wrought should ultimately be repaired, and 
sin, in the person of the serpent, be destroyed. 
" The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's 
head!" — in other words, destroy the serpent. 
Paul saw a fulfilment of this promise in Christ. 
" Forasmuch, then, as the children are partakers 
of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took 
part of the same, that through death he might 
destroy him that hath the power of death, that is 
the devil" — " that old serpent, which is the devil, 
and satan" says John. 

This promise-prophecy, flowing out from Eden, 
seems to have pervaded the ancient world. In 
an Hindu myth,. Krishna, an incarnation of 
Vishnu, contends with the Evil One, in the form 
of a serpent, and slays him. In Egyptian myth- 
ology, Osiris overcomes Typhon, the evil god, 
whose name is interpreted by serpent. Hercules, 
of the Greeks, possesses himself of the golden 
apple of the Hesperides, and slays the serpent 
that guarded it. Ahura-Mazda, of the Persians, 
overcomes Angro-Mainyush, who, in the form of 
a serpent, brought his fruits to men. 

The promise made in Eden, was renewed in 
substance, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God 
made promise to those patriarchs, that, in the 
seed of the woman, — the serpent-destroyer, — all 
nations, kindreds, and families of the earth shall 



BESULTS. 



175 



be blessed. And again, Paul identifies this 
promise with Christ. 

Speaking through the prophet Isaiah, God 
declares his purpose with great solemnity and 
emphasis : " I have sworn by myself, the word 
has gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and 
shall not return unto me void ; that unto me 
every knee shall bote, and every tongue confess, 
surely shall say, in the Lord have I righteousness 
and strength ! " 

Passing out of the Old Testament, the river of 
promise appears again in the New. In words 
never to be forgotten, and impossible to be mis- 
understood, Christ announced the result of his 
mission : " And I, if I be lifted up from the 
earth, will draw all men unto me!" 

In three extraordinary affirmations, St. Paul 
is in strict accord with the foregoing. First, to 
the Ephesians : " Having made known unto us the 
mystery of his ivill, according to his good pleas- 
ure, which he hath purposed in himself that, in 
dispensation of the fullness of times, he might 
gather together in one all things in Christ, both 
which are in heaven, and which are on earth, 
even in Him ! " 

Second, to the Phillippians : " Him hath He 
highly exalted, and given him a name which is 
above every name, that at the name of Jesus 
every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and 



176 



LIFE'S PB0BLE3IS. 



things in earth, and things under the earth, (i. e. 
in the intermediate state,) and that every tongue 
should confess, (that is to say, the whole intelli- 
gent universe,) that Jesus is Lord, (i, e., owner) 
to the glory of God the Father! " 

Third, to the Colossians : " And having made 
peace by the blood of His cross, by Him to 
reconcile all things to Himself; by Him I say, 
whether they be things in earth, or things in 
heaven! " 

The progressive nature and movement of this 
great work in the earth and in the heavens, and 
wherever God's children need reconciliation, is 
clearly stated in an epistle of Paul's to the Cor- 
inthians: " Then cometh the end, when He shall 
have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the 
Father ; when He shall have put down all rule, 
and all authority, and power : For He must reign 
till He hath put all enemies under His feet ; and 
death, the last enemy, shall be destroyed : For 
He hath put all things under His feet ! And 
when all things shall be subdued to Him, then 
shall the Son also Himself be subject to Him 
that put all things under Him, — that God may he 

ALL IN ALL ! " 

I could not fail to feel the force of these Scrip- 
tures, nor to perceive how thoroughly they har- 
monize with the verdict of reason, They are but 
a fragment of similar testimony scattered through- 



BESULTS. 



Ill 



out the Word ; but they are to the purpose, and 
sufficient to satisfy the most careful inquirer after 
the truth. The result was all I could desire. 
It was an answer to all noble aspirations, to all 
earnest prayers, to all sincere sacrifices for the 
saltation of man, of the great and the good of all 
ages. It was a vindication of Christ. It was an 
honor to God ! 

How busy a scene, I said, is life — below, 
above. From its lowest to its highest forms ; 
from the zoophyte to man ; from man to angel ; 
from angel to the Heavenly Father ; all is cease- 
less activity and progress. 

And all are moving to one final focus. The 
great maelstrom of Infinite Love holds all things 
secure within its all-embracings rings ; and at 
last will draw all things to itself. " For of Him, 
and through Him, and to Him, are all things ; to 
whom be glory forever ! " 



IMMORTAL YOUTH. 



We go immediately into the spiritual life, but we shall not 
take the body. That true old man — Cardinal MeCloskey — has 
gone up from the midst of those who loved and nourished him. 
To-day he lifts his venerable head,— no, he is young,— years 
shall never hurt him again. He is as young as God. He shall 
remain in an eternal youth, with all those whom he loved on 
earth, and with all those to whom he ministered, and with all 
the great flock of those whom he feared were doomed to eternal 
destruction. He shall find them there in that land without 
controversy, without theology, without division, and all as 
dear to him as though they had come out of the chrysm of his 
own hands*— Henry Ward Beecher. 



CHAPTER XIII. 



IMMOBTAL YOUTH. 

The ultimate destiny of the human race firmly 
settled in my own mind, a number of side ques- 
tions, of scarcely less interest, engaged my at- 
tention, and I diligently sought their solution. 
I was often asked if I supposed that infancy, 
youth, and age, would be continued as fixed 
states in the life immortal. If there be no change 
after death, the answer is obvious ; but, somehow, 
I could not give the obvious answer. 

One thing I regarded as absolutely certain, — 
If God be Omnipotent and Infinite in Wisdom, 
He is sure to perfect and ultimate His works. 
If the human race, and a heaven of the human 
race, is the aim and end of the creative effort, it 
is evident that short of that result, and all that it 
implies, God cannot pause. It is a wild con- 
clusion that stays Omnipotence in mid career, 
and exhausts Infinite Wisdom short of its pur- 
posed goal. 



182 



LIFE'S PBOBLEMS. 



One thing more I regarded as absolutely cer- 
tain, — The heaven to which we naturally aspire 
for ourselves, and for those whom we love, is not 
a condition of being in which all further progress 
is suspended and all possibility of further growth 
forever closed; nor where infancy, age and de- 
crepitude are fixed states. Such a heaven would 
not be worth striving for, save as a foil against 
something worse. A heaven where the crutch is 
not laid aside, where the lost limb is not recovered 
where the stooping shoulders are not straightened, 
where the furrows that time has plowed on cheek 
and forehead are not obliterated, where the 
jangled nerves are not restrung, where the con- 
fused and dazed brain is not restored to reason, 
w r here grey hairs and baldness are perpetuated, 
where puling infancy is immortalized, is surely 
not the heaven to which we instinctively turn 
when weary and worn with the burthens of our 
present life. Such a heaven would be nothing 
more than a nursery, a hospital, and a lunatic 
asylum, all in one ! It is not the " Father's 
house" of "many mansions" — man's final and 
immortal home. 

The highest inspirations and the most sublime 
truths are, as we have seen, often voiced in song. 
Addison, in one of his tragedies, makes Cato to 
soliloquize thus of the soul : 



IMMOBTAL YOUTH. 



183 



" The stars shall fade away ; the sun 
Himself grow dim with age, and nature 
Sink in years ; but thou shalt flourish 
In immortal youth, unhurt amid 
The war of. elements, the wreck 
Of matter, and the crash of worlds." 

Mrs. Browning, in her beautiful poems, gives 
expression again and again to a similar thought : 

" — God keeps a niche 
In heaven to hold our idols ! — and albeit 
He break them to our faces, and denied 
That our close kisses should impair their white, 
I know we shall behold them raised, complete, 
The dust shook from their beauty." 

She also makes one, who has but just entered 
upon the immortal life, to sing : 

"I am strong in the spirit, deep-thoughted, clear- 
eyed, 

I could walk, step for step, with an angel beside. 
On the Heaven-heights of Truth, 
Oh the soul keeps its youth / " 

We all know and admire the May Queen, of 
Tennyson's. It is a sweet, touching poem, and 
many have wept over the young Queen's early 
death. She dies with hope of immortality, and 
of meeting in heaven her earthly friends. But 



184 



LIFE'S PROBLEMS. 



who that has read the poem would not like to 
know something of her future life ? T. L. Harris, 
an American poet, has, in similar verse, essayed 
to gratify our curiosity. He first describes her 
surprise at finding that she is still herself in every 
essential particular, notwithstanding she has 
passed away from the earth; and then he gives 
some account of her surroundings and future 
experiences : 

" I thought to wake an airy thing, with phantoms 

pale and white, 
Made up of vapors Dure and fine, and beams of 

floating light ; 
But here I am, with azure eyes, and golden locks 

a curl, 

With dimpled cheek, and rounded arm, an artless 

English girl. 
A shadow of my earthly home was all I hoped to 

find, 

But heaven is sure a real world, in glowing skies 
enshrined, 

And holy saints, I thought to see with scanty hair 
and grey, 

Are sprightly youths, and maidens fair, dressed 

for a bridal day, 
Through every heart the holy stream of loving 

worship flows, 
But lights the face with happy smiles and blushes 

to the rose. 



IMMORTAL YOUTH. 



185 



The morning glories climb the eaves, and crimson 
in the sun ; 

The daisies in the meadows grow, and seven I find 
for one ; 

The hawthorn hedges, white with bloom, on every 
side I see ; 

The robin pipes, the sky-lark sings, and hums the 
honey bee ; 

The church spire crowns the distant hill, the May- 
pole decks - the green, 

And, o'er the pleasant garden walks the orchard 
branches lean ; 

The fields are bright with golden grain, the 
dingles laugh with flowers, 

And deeds of cheerful kindness fill the day's 
delightful hours. 

It seemed to be a cruel fate, that I should wither 
down, 

Just in my girlhood, with a blight upon my May 
day crown ; 

But now I see how kind it was, in Him the angels 
love, 

To wean my heart from earthly things for endless 
joys above. 

I fall and worship at His feet, like her who knelt 
of old, 

And wiped the precious tears away with tresses 
all of gold. 

I kneel and bless His holy name ; I should not 
here abide, 

If Jesus, for the love of me, had suffered not and 
died." 



186 



LIFE'S PB OB L JEMS. 



This, you say, is poetry. It is. But the ideal 
is never wholly imaginary. It has a substantial 
basis in the real. The form which it assumes 
may be crude, fantastic, and even hideous ; but 
it always clothes a soul of truth. Of this fact the 
heathen mythologies afford a conclusive illustra- 
tion. False in form, but clothing ideas essentially 
true. " There is a soul of good," says Bailey, 
"in all things evil." The poet's conceptions are 
not always his own. As Mrs. Browning says of 
a baby's smile in sleep: — it is "not its own 
smile, but dropped from some celestial mouth." 
The poet's ideal of immortal youth is not with- 
out foundation. It contains the conception of 
an actual reality. 

But perhaps more conclusive, and easier to be 
grasped by the understanding, is the physiological 
fact that infancy and age are but temporary in- 
cidents of our earthly career. The matured 
mind never grows old — never feels old. From 
the period of its maturity, to the event of death, 
it has no sense of advancing age. We become 
conscious, as age advances, that our command of 
our bodily powers is weakening, that neither hand 
nor foot execute the behest of the will with 
youthful alacrity, and that nerve and muscle are 
losing their sensitiveness and elasticity; but the 
will, conceptive thought, imagination, maintain 
their force and vivacity, and self-consciousness 
remains unimpaired. 



IMMOBTAL YOUTH. 



187 



But, the imperfect connection of man with his 
body is not always a result of age. He who in- 
dites these thoughts has never been able, from 
early youth to this hour, to control the hand that 
wields the pen. A musical friend can read at 
sight the most difficult music, but he is quite 
unable to strike the right note with certainty 
when playing. He has no absolute control of his 
fingers. The mind conceives, and the eye sees 
with precision, and the will is ready to command, 
but the surgeon's hand, the Alpine climber's foot, 
the fingers of the artist, require long training 
and manipulation before they are prepared to do 
faithfully what is required of them. In infancy 
and youth the telegraphic system of the body is 
imperfectly developed, and the operator is not 
always skilful. In old age the wires are often 
down, and the circuit broken ; and messages from 
the central office do not, with certainty, reach 
remote points. This interruption of communi- 
cation is, nevertheless, but temporary. Ulti- 
mately, the operator is transferred to a new office, 
connected with wires that are never down, and 
circuit never broken. 

A gentleman who heard John Quincy Adams 
in his old age deliver one of his fiery speeches, 
exclaimed, — " What a pity that engine could not 
be put into a new hull ! " What he wished might 
be done, was effected when Mr. Adams, exclaim- 



188 LIFE'S PBOBLEMS. 

ing — " This is the last of earth ! " — passed from 
the Senate-chamber to the world immortal. 
The engine was then transferred to a new hull that 
is now sailing celestial seas. 

It seemed to me clear that facts in physiology, 
and in psychology, together with logical deduc- 
tions from the perfections of God, point unmis- 
takably to the attainment in the immortal life of 
physical and mental perfection ; in other words? 
— to the attainment of Immortal Youth. 

That there are objections to this theory; or 
perhaps I should say, difficulties in the way that 
some persons cannot, unaided, overcome ; I was 
fully aware, for they were frequently urged upon 
my attention. 

A mother, whom I was endeavoring to console 
for the loss of her babe, exclaimed, — " How shall 
I know my baby if it be grown to manhood when 
I go to heaven ! " So, too, in effect, queries 
Bryant in one of the most touching poems in our 
language : 

" How shall I know thee, in the sphere that keeps 
The disembodied spirits of the dead ? 
Wh^n all of thee that time could wither sleeps, 
And perishes among the dust we tread. 

"For I shall feel the sting of ceaseless pain 
If there I meet thy gentle presence not ; 

Nor hear the voice I love, nor read again 
In thy serenest eyes the tender thought. 



IMMOBTAL YOUTH. 



189 



" Yet, though thou wer'st the glory of the sky, 
Wilt thou not keep the same beloved name, 

The same fair, thoughtful brow, and gentle eye, 
Lovelier in heaven's sweet climate, yet the 
same ? " 

O ! fond loving heart ; how full of questionings 
and uncertainties thou art. The mother, undoubt- 
edly, yearns to meet again her babe in all its 
baby loveliness and helplessness ; but she should 
not forget that she cannot keep it always the 
same here. If it live, it will grow to manhood or 
womanhood, in due time ; if it die, and grow to 
manhood or womanhood, it will simply fulfil its 
destiny. A mother separated from her child in 
its youth, seldom fails to identify it, after a lapse 
of years, as her's ; and the identification of chil- 
dren in heaven, by their parents, cannot be more 
difficult than their identification here. 

The guardian angels of little children in the 
world immortal must know to whom they belong. 
They are of the highest order of spiritual intelli- 
gences. " See," said Jesus, " that ye do no harm 
to one of these little ones, for I say unto you that 
their angels do always behold the face of my 
Father w r hich is in heaven ! A mother seeking 
for her child in an asylum, would be told by the 
attendant where to find it. So we may believe 
that angel attendants lead mothers to their chil- 
dren, and, if necessary, identify them. 



190 



LIFE'S PBOBLEMS. 



Nor must the law of affinity be overlooked as 
an agency of recognition. Parents of children 
are not only of the same flesh and blood, but 
of the same spiritual substance. Along the line of 
identity the law of affinity acts, and the fact of 
relationship is at once made apparent, indestruc- 
tible and ineradicable. 

And here let it be noted that recognition is not 
altogether a physical, but, in large part, a spirit- 
ual process. In other words, recognition of rela- 
tives and friends does not always depend upon 
recollection of physical features. A subtile at- 
mosphere, exceedingly sensitive to impressions, 
surrounds the body and acts as a medium of 
recognition ; not only of personality, but of a 
prof ounder interior knowledge, — a knowledge of 
one's spiritual quality. Recognition of features, 
or a strong personal resemblance, does not neces- 
sarily assure recognition of person. We are 
often deceived by a strong resemblance ; and only 
when the higher test comes into play do we be- 
come aware of our mistake. Not long ago a 
near relative, whom I had not seen for twenty 
years, paid me a visit ; and at first sight I did 
not know him. He had grown grey, and his face 
bore the marks of age. The beardless face, the 
rosy cheeks of boyhood, the youthful locks, the 
clear ringing voice, were all gone ; and before 
me stood to all outward appearance an old man. 



IMMOBTAL YOUTH. 



191 



But when he said, " Do you not know Wilder 
Parker?" and had taken me by the hand, recog- 
nition was instantaneous. 

On the Mount of Transfiguration the disciples 
recognized Moses and Elijah, in company with 
J esus. Those men they had never seen. They 
had been dead for centuries ; and yet the disciples 
knew who they were. Their own spiritual facul- 
ties were opened and made the medium of recog- 
nition. At death all our spiritual faculties will 
be opened and released, and all impediments to 
recognition will be removed. The veil of flesh 
rent in twain, and no longer " seeing through a 
glass darkly," all actual ties will be seen, felt and 
acknowledged, and there will be no distracted 
mothers seeking for their children, and seeking 
for them in vain. 

I was more than delighted at the prospect that 
this view of our future personality opened before 
me. No more " slings and arrows of outrageous 
fortune ; " no more to " toil and sweat under a 
weary yoke ; " no more weariness from enforced 
labor ; no more of the thousand ills to which our 
mortal flesh is heir ; and, as Dr. Watts describes 
the heavenly country : — 

"No more disease, no more distress, 

Nor sighs, nor groans, shall reach that place \ 

No tears do mingle in the songs 

That warble from immortal tongues." 



192 LIFE'S PROBLEMS. 

No death ; no funeral processions ; no cem- 
eteries ; no sick-rooms ; nothing incompatible 
with Immortal Youth ! 



TWO IN ONE. 



Male and female created he them, and named their name 
Adam. — Moses. 

For this cause the man shall leave his father and his mother 
and shall cleave to his wife, and they shall be two only in one 
flesh. So they are no more two, hut only one flesh. What, 
therefore, God hath united let not man put asunder. — Christ. 

I unite my breath with thy breath, thy bones with my bones, 
thy flesh with my flesh, thy skin with my skin. -- Hindu Mar- 
riage Ceremony, from Yajur-veda, 



CHAPTEK XIV. 



TWO IN ONE. 

Woman loves more fondly and persistently 
than man. He is the north star of her soul, 
around which the constellation of her love unde- 
viatingly turns by night and by day. She is not 
her true self, nor her complete self, until she 
acknowledges and responds to his attraction. 
She perceives this instinctively, and hence is full 
of anxiety, and troubled with many doubts and 
fears touching the perpetuity of their union. It 
is an old, old question, that the Sadduces pro- 
posed to Jesus : " Whose wife shall she be in the 
resurrection ? " and where there has been more 
than one marriage, the question is intensified. 
Again and again I was asked, "Do you think 
that my husband and I will be united after 
death ? I would not care to live hereafter apart 
from him." 

Dear, faithful soul! She does not see that, 
even if there be no future life, her faithful love 



198 



LIFE'S PBOBLEMS. 



of the earth, even in the very herbs are both 
sexes. Moreover, it is constantly affirmed (of 
the palm trees) that the females be naturally 
barren and will not bear fruit without the com- 
pany of males among them." In the writings of 
Linnaeus, innumerable facts and illustrations are 
cited on the sexuality of plants, and its agree- 
ment with that of animals. Grindon affirms 
that, although there are many variations of the 
arrangement, the sexual principle extends from 
the highest to the lowest, whether animal or 
plant, is absolutely certain. This fact is now so 
well understood, not only by the learned botanist, 
but by the common florist and gardener, that no 
one thinks of denying it. 

4. The sexual principle also extends to inor- 
ganic substances, and equally pervades the whole 
inorganic world. " Loves and marriages " says 
Dr. Mason Good, in his Book of Nature, "are 
common to all nature. They exist between atom 
and atom, and the philosopher calls them attrac- 
tion ; they exist between congeries and congeries, 
and the chemist calls them affinity; they exist 
between iron and loadstone, and every one de- 
nominates them magnetism." By the marriage 
of oxygen and hydrogen water is produced ; by 
that of calcium and oxygen, lime ; by that of 
oxygen and nitrogen, nitric acid ; and the entire 
materials of the globe, with the exception of 



TWO IN ONE. 



199 



fundamental substances — which chemists call 
simple — owe their existence to marriages of this 
nature. The ingredients of animals and plants 
are no exception. And when these marriages do 
not so occur, as in the case of copper and gold, 
these substances take the beautiful and appro- 
priate name of "virgin" — as virgin copper, vir- 
gin gold, etc. But it is by no means certain that 
these substances are not the children of a prior 
marriage. A writer, in the North British Review, 
is of the opinion that the sixty-four elements of 
existing chemistry may be ultimately composed, 
for anything that can be asserted to the contrary, 
of simpler bodies still ; which are all compre- 
hended, probably, under tivo primary funda- 
mental species. One thing is certain ; The sex- 
ual arrangement covers so wide a known field, 
we may justly conclude that it has nowhere in 
nature an exception. It is a chain that extends 
through nature, up to its final clue in God. 

5. The ancients recognized the sexuality of 
nature in their mythology. " The division of 
mythological beings into masculine and femi- 
nine," says Max Miiller, " cannot, in any event, 
be the result of accident. Neither can there be 
any doubt that the sex of the presiding deity was 
always determined by the accordance of his or her 
charge with either the masculine or the feminine 
nature and office. . . . When we call to mind the 



200 



LIFE'S PBOBLEMS. 



lofty correspondence of the vine and of corn in 
their emblematic uses in Scripture ; and as bread 
and wine in the chief sacrament of the Christian 
religion; and when we find their respective 
deities, Bacchus and Ceres, or Osiris and Isis, 
(each pair consisting of male and female,) inti- 
mately associated with the first legends of myth- 
ology, and the beginnings of life ; how brilliant 
and inviting becomes that which Lord Bacon, 
while he so well treats, so justly styles, 'The 
Wisdom of the Ancients.' " 

The gods and goddesses of the earliest pan- 
theons, were originally intended to personify the 
masculine and feminine qualities and functions. 
Many of the ancient rites and ceremonies had a 
similar intention. u The phallic procession," says 
Bulwer, in his Rise and Fall of Athens, " how- 
ever outwardly indecorous, betokened in its ori- 
gin, only the symbol of fertility." The Greeks 
" seem particularly to have delighted to represent 
the origin, the union and changes of the various 
parts of nature under the guise of matrimony 
and birth — Causes, with them, becoming parents 
— Effects, children. The story of the marriage 
of Zephyrus, or the balmy west wind, to Flora, 
and the consequent embroidering the earth with 
flowers, is a charming instance of one of the 
most poetic conceptions, and of the prettiest 
pieces of verse in Greek poetry. The incongru- 



TWO IN ONE. 



201 



ous and unhappy marriages, which often origin- 
ated foul and monstrous animals, or led to long 
courses of calamity, depict what takes place 
when the fair order of nature is departed 
from." 

6. What I assert, then, is that sex is neither 
accidental nor superficial, but primary and inev- 
itable ; in a word, that it is not of the body, but 
of the spirit, — not body-born, but spirit-born! 

7. If it were of the body only, it would cease 
with the body ; and after death men and women 
would not be men and women, but a species of 
nondescript ! But nobody believes that. We 
expect to meet in the spirit-world our sons and 
daughters, brothers and sisters, fathers and moth- 
ers, husbands and wives, our dear male and 
female friends, and not a congregation of souls 
that were thus once distinguished, but which are 
now transformed into the neuter gender ! 

8. Sex, then, being of the spirit, and not a 
merely bodily circumstance, it follows, irrever- 
sibly, that sex is eternal! 

9. Yea, more : It follows that the attractions 
and affinities of sex are eternal ! 

10. Furthermore : It follows that there will be, 
nay, must be, conjunctions of sex, according to 
eternal affinities in the life to come. If there 
shall not be such conjunctions, why is sex con- 
tinued and perpetuated after death? 



202 



LIFE'S PROBLEMS. 



11. Moreover, the intercourse and conjunction 
of the sexes is one of the chief elements of our 
happiness. What condition of life more perfect, 
what joy more full and deep, than that which 
flows from the true marriage of a perfectly and 
truly loving pair ! And that this is one of the 
elements of heavenly happiness, who can doubt ? 
Heaven and Home are, interiorly, synonymous. 
The instinct of the soul, voicing itself in speech, 
leads up to immortal truth. Heaven and Home 
enter unitedly into the common thought and hope 
of all who think intelligently of the life to come. 
In the Atharva-veda of the ancient Hindus, 
(B. C. 1000,) there are many passages in which 
a hope is expressed that families may be united 
after death: "Mayest thou conduct us to heaven; 
may we be with our wives and children." " In 
heaven, where oui friends and intimates live in 
blessedness, having left behind them the infirmi- 
ties of their bodies, free from lameness and dis- 
tortion of limb, may we behold our parents and 
children." In one of the oldest of the nations, 
the Chinese, the home is divinized, and the high- 
est conception of future bliss, and moral perfec- 
tion, is concentrated in that word. 

12. Among modern civilized nations, the idea 
of heaven, as a home, seems to have an irresisti- 
ble fascination. Our religious books, songs and 
hymns, abound with it in manifold forms of ex- 



TWO IN ONE. 



203 



pression, and it is often, no doubt, the foil of an 
unsatisfactory theology. 

" Jerusalem, my glorious home ! 
Name ever dear to me," 

" There is a home for weary souls, 
By sins and sorrows driven." 

" I'm but a stranger here, 
Heaven is my home." 

« I'm going home, Fm going home, 
Fm going home to die no more." 

These, and kindred hymns, are sung with a 
divine enthusiasm by the most diverse Christian 
sects ; and the social melody, — " Home, home, 
sweet, sweet home," — for a half century, has 
pulsed in soft and gentle breathings around the 
world. 

13. The superb genius of Robert Burns 
achieved its loftiest flight in " The Cotter's Sat- 
urday Night." The picture he draws of the Scot- 
tish home is full of exquisite and delicate touches, 
true to life ; and there are few who can read it, 
and enter into its spirit, and refrain from tears. 
From the humble Scotch cottage, he sees the 
happy scene transferred to the world immortal, 
to bloom " in uncreated rays : " 



204 



LIFE' 8 PROBLEMS. 



" Then kneeling down to heaven's Eternal King, 
The saint, the father, and the husband prays ; 
Hope springs exulting on triumphant wing, 
That thus they all shall meet in future days: 
There ever bask in uncreated rays, 
No more to sigh or shed the bitter tear, 
Together hymning their Creator's praise, 
In such society, yet still more dear ; 
While circling time moves round in an eternal 
sphere." 

If this hope of a final heavenly home were 
stricken away from our faith, a void would be 
left that nothing else could fill. Heaven would 
be reft of its chief attraction. 

14. But without marriage home is impossible ; 
and a perfectly happy home can result only from 
true marriage ; and it is evident that true mar- 
riage is not a conjunction of material bodies, but 
of immortal spirits. 

15. The idea that finds the whole purport of 
marriage in physical conjunction, is low and 
beastly. From its practical realization flows that 
terrible tide of misery that keeps busy the divorce 
courts, disgraces our Christian civilization, and 
fills the world with sorrow. If souls, instead of 
bodies, were sought in marriage, there would be 
less wrangling, fierce quarrelling, and desperate 
murdering ; and all that is possible in true love 
and a happy home would be realized. 



TWO IN ONE. 



205 



16. Two in one is, therefore, the basis of true 
marriage ; whether on the earth, or in the 
heavens. Husband, and wife, truly married, are 
one ; and such only has God joined together ! 
The masculine is incomplete alone. The feminine 
is incomplete alone. Only when spiritually united 
does completeness transpire. This truth is taught 
by science, sound reason, and the Scriptures. 
Experience, also, confirms it. 

17. Christ said, — " For this cause shall a man 
leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his 
wife ; and they twain shall be ONE flesh." And 
we read, in the more ancient Scripture, — " Male 
and female created He them, and blessed them, 
and called their name Adam," — or, Man! Two 
in one, was in the Divine Mind in the beginning 
of our race ; and two in one is the purpose of the 
Divine Mind with respect to its ultimate result. 

18. That such unions are possible, even in this 
imperfect life, is not to be denied ; but, we fear 
that they are not frequent. Where they do 
transpire, they are sure to be prolific of heavenly 
joy and peace. Children born of such unions, 
are certain to be harmonious and beautiful. They 
contribute to the gradual, but certain improve- 
ment of mankind. No instrumentality has been 
more potent in human progress, through all the 
past, than the improvement that has taken place 
in popular ideas of marriage, and in the consequent 
improved condition of the marriage state. 



206 



LIFE'S PBOBLEMS. 



19. But the chief bane of marriage lies in our 
human short-sightedness and ignorance. Truly 
we see each other " through a glass darkly ; " and 
marriage is a kind of lottery, in which one is 
very liable to draw the wrong number. The 
pious Dr. Watts must, we think, have had some 
such experience. He quaintly writes : — 

" The mighty power that formed the mind, 
One mould for every two designed, 

And blessed the new-born pair : 
This be a match for this, He said ; 
Then down He sent the souls He made, 

To seek their bodies here. 
But parting from their warm abode, 
They lost their fellows on the road, 

And never joined their hands : 
Oh ! cruel chance, and crossing fates, 
Our heaven-born souls have lost their mates 

On earth's cold, barren sands." 

Many miserable people, made doubly miserable 
by an unhappy marriage, will find no difficulty 
in making application of this sorrowful plaint to 
themselves. But let them not despair. When no 
longer veiled in flesh, and both men and women 
" see as they are seen, and know even as they are 
known," the " lost mate " will be found, and the 
danger of mismating will have forever passed 
away. 



two m ONE. 



207 



20. I was now prepared to answer the Saddu- 
cean problem with which I opened this discussion, 
— " Whose wife shall she be of the seven in the 
future life? — for they all had her." Or, in 
other words, — " Shall I be united to my earthly 
companion after death? " 

21. Our answer is, — One man for one woman, 
and one woman for one man, both here and here- 
after, is the interior law of sex ! " How can two 
walk together, except they be agreed?" If that 
is impossible here without strife, and, sometimes, 
hatred, how can they be expected to walk to- 
gether there, without, in every respect, being 
agreed, and to all eternity? Heaven is impos- 
sible without order ; and we cannot insist, too 
firmly, that inharmonious unions cannot take 
place in heaven. 

22. Besides, when there have been second or 
more marriages, it is obvious that there must be 
separation, and new unions be formed. Possibly 
two of the number may be spiritually united ; 
and then, of course, they will remain united ; and 
those not so united must, and will, find their true 
spiritual mates elsewhere. In the spirit world 
the law of affinity is more inflexible than steel ; 
and it must, and will be obeyed ! 

23. Married couples need borrow no trouble 
as to whom shall be their future mates. And 
those who have passed their lives here in unwil- 



208 



LIFE'S PBOBLEMS. 



ling celibacy, may rest assured that a companion, 
faithful and true, loving and beloved, will, in due 
time be provided them, — a companion, with 
whom they will walk forever through the glorious 
scenery of the heavenly home, ascend hand in 
hand the golden spiral of immortal progress, and 
be to each other a fountain of perpetual ecstacy, 
and, now, unimaginable bliss ! The heavenly 
Father leaves no permanent flaw in His works ! 

24. But I was admonished that, to this satis- 
factory and pleasing conclusion, a serious obstacle 
is interposed by the words of Jesus. He said to 
the Sadducees, — " In the future life they neither 
marry nor are given in marriage, but they are as 
the angels." True. But I beg to offer, with re- 
gard to this statement of J esus, — which, indeed, 
has proven a frightful stumbling-block to many 
sincere inquirers, — the following suggestions : — 

1. The statement is purely a negative one at 
best, and too vague to be satisfactory. What is 
the state, or condition of the angels? Of this 
Jesus says nothing. We are left wholly to con- 
jecture, or to derive such information as we may 
from the authority of reason. 

2. To fully understand these words of Jesus, it 
is necessary that we know something of the cus- 
toms relating to marriage among the Jews ; to 
which, undoubtedly, Jesus had reference. 



TWO IN ONE. 



209 



In Jewish marriage gifts were given, or a 
price was paid by the bridegroom. The daughter 
was the father's property, In Jacob's case, he 
had nothing to give, so he rendered service as an 
equivalent. This corresponds to the purchase of 
the wife, which was practiced over a large part of 
the world in ancient times. 

3. Evidently, Jesus refers to this practice ; and 
it is reasonably certain that such kind of 
marriage, — "giving in marriage," — does not 
prevail in the heavens. Women there are not 
commercial commodities, and no divorce court is 
run by the angels ! 

4. Marriage in the heavens is not a lottery. 
Nor is it accomplished by bargain and sale, nor 
by any outwardly legal contract. Two heavenly 
counterparts are united by the irresistible percep- 
tion of perfect fitness and therefore of perfect 
love. 

The view of marriage, here given, I found to 
be exceedingly satisfactory to myself, and equally 
so to those who sought from me a solution of 
their difficulties. Its practical utility cannot be 
overestimated. It confers upon marriage a much- 
needed solemnity in this frivolous age. At pres- 
ent, the young have nothing to guide them but 
superficial likes and dislikes, and considerations 
of a purely earthly nature. A " marriage of con- 



210 



LIFE' 8 PROBLEMS. 



venience," is a too often occurrence, and the 
phrase by which it is characterized is charged 
with a frightfully sinister meaning. The " deeps 
of misery, the horrible soul-agonies, the physical 
suffering, the mal-formed and sickly children, 
the dreadful accumulation of sins and diseases " 
that result from unloving and unmated marriages, 
is a daily spectacle that pains the hearts of the 
sensitive and pure, and excites, we doubt not, the 
commiseration of the angels. Can it be possible 
that this is in Divine Order; or acceptable to 
Him who instituted marriage as the nursery, as 
the supply reservoir of the heavens ? 

This horrible picture, thank God, has its re- 
verse side; and that presents a landscape of 
serene and heavenly bliss, of unbroken joy, of 
ineffable delight, of happy, beautiful, and harmo- 
nious children, as the result of a true conjunction 
of souls. 

Once more Burns. In his charming song, 
" John Anderson my jo, John," he has drawn the 
picture of a truly wedded pair : 

" John Anderson my jo, John, 
When first we were aquent ; 
Your locks were like the raven, 
Your bonnie brow was brent ; 
But now your brow is beld, John, 
Your locks are like the snaw ; 
But blessings on your frosty pow, 
John Anderson my jo. 



TWO IN ONE. 



211 



"John Anderson my jo, John, 
We clamb the hill thegither ; 
And many a canty day, John, 
We've had wi' ane anither ; 
Now we maun totter down, John, 
But hand in hand we '1! go, 
And sleep thegither at the foot, 
John Anderson my jo." 

But this picture of a truly wedded pair, lovely 
as it is, seems to need an additional touch to 
make it complete, and bring it into harmony with 
the absolute reality. To disappear at the foot of 
the hill in a repulsive grave, and left to remain 
there, is surely a sad ending to a beautiful life. 
I have ventured to extend the picture by giving 
the additional touch : 

John Anderson my jo, John, 

Our sleep will not be long, 

We will wake in heaven's light, John, 

Amid a happy throng ; 

Then heart and hand thegither, 

Forever more we'll go, 

And never, never part again, 

John Anderson my jo. 

This is the legitimate result of true marriage 
of souls ; ordained for divine uses on the earth 
and in the heavens. The young should be care- 



212 



LIFJE'S PBOBLEMS. 



fully instructed to seek for such marriage ; that, 
united to loving and harmonious companions, they 
may wend their way upward through paths of 
joy, beauty, and glory forever. 



THE PROBLEM OF EVIL. 



All evil, in fact the very existence of evil, is inexplicable 
until wo refer to the paternity of God. It hangs a huge blot in 
the universe until the orb of Divine love rises behind it. In 
that apposition we detect its meaning. It appears to us but a 
finite shadow as it passes across the disk of Infinite Light. 

— E . H.Chapin. 

Even in evil, that dark cloud that hangs over the creation, 
we discern rays of light and hope; and gradually come to see 
in suffering and temptation proofs and instruments of the sub- 
lime purposes of wisdom and love. 

— W. E. Charming. 



CHAPTER XV. 



THE PROBLEM OF EVIL. 

I shudder, even now, when I think of the 
weary hours I have spent on the kindred prob- 
lems of Evil and Free-will. The problem of evil 
was my bete noir, — a veritable black demon that 
would not down. I tried to believe that God 
might have created a world without taint of nat- 
ural or moral evil, had he so chosen ; but the fact 
that God is the Absolute compelled me to aban- 
don the attempt. The Absolute cannot choose to 
be other than the Absolute, and of course knows 
no alternative. The Absolute knows what is 
right, sees what is right, and always wills and 
acts right. He cannot, therefore, choose to act 
otherwise than He does. If he were to face an 
alternative he would cease to be the Absolute, — 
would cease to be God. 

I was compelled to acknowledge that the plan 
on which the world is constructed is the best 
possible ; and that this world is the best possible 
world ! No other plan could have been adopted ; 



216 



LIFE'S PBOBLEMS. 



no other method of construction pursued. From 
its incipiency in the thought of God, and through 
each stage of its development to the present hour, 
the world has been the outcome of Infinite Wis- 
dom, Love and Power. 

The presence of natural and moral evil in the 
world seems to militate against this conclusion. 
But does it, really ? Bigoted, short-sighted scep- 
tics affirm that it does, and shallow readers and 
audiences applaud. It is not to be denied that 
there is a vast amount of suffering in the world 
from purely physical causes, and moral evil surges 
from pole to pole the world around. To reconcile 
natural and moral evil with the Wisdom, Love 
and Power of God, has been the problem of the 
ages, and the despair of the most learned and 
able men. Can it be done ? To this task I set 
myself in dead earnest. The measure of success 
that attended my effort will appear in this 
chapter. 

In the first place, I considered the solution 
proposed by the advocates of Free-will. Free- 
will, say" they, solves the problem, and relieves 
God of responsibility! How any good thinker 
ever came to believe this, I do not pretend to 
know; for it is certain that the solution based on 
Free-will is open to several serious objections. 

Does Free-will account for destructive earth- 
quakes, which have sometimes overwhelmed great 



THE PBOBLEM OF EVIL. 



217 



cities and swallowed up the guilty and innocent 
alike? 

Does Free-will account for the furious cyclone 
and destructive storm, that, with deadly effect, 
have swept land and sea ? 

Does Free-will account for the wrathful vol- 
canic eruption, that has buried towns and cities, 
with their teeming populations, and made beauti- 
ful sections of country a desert waste ? 

Does Free-will account for the deadly ava- 
lanche and land-slide, and for the overwhelming 
flood ? Does it account for devastating plagues 
and epidemics ? 

Does Free-will account for hereditary diseases, 
and the premature death of one-half the human 
race ? 

Does Free-will account for what the creeds 
affirm to be the effect of Adam's sin ? — by which 
all his innocent posterity are " exposed to all the 
miseries of this life, death itself, and the pains of 
hell forever ! " 

Does Free-will account for differences of dis- 
position, temper, ability, tendency ; for differences 
of birth, opportunity, surroundings, and all the 
results, good and evil, that spring from these 
differences ? 

Does Free-will account for Paul's struggle with 
himself ? He tells us that " when he would do 
good, evil was present with him ; and the good 



218 



LIFE'S PBOBLEMS. 



he would do he did not, and the evil he woidd 
not do, that he did ; " and he exclaims, with a 
sense of powerlessness, " O wretched man that I 
am ! — who shall deliver me from the body of 
this death?" 

I saw very shortly that the shallow refuge of 
Free-will was inadequate to solve the problem. 
It exploded and vanished in thin air at the very 
threshold of difficulty. The great problem still 
rose dark, mysterious, and defiant as ever, and 
seemed to mock at my puny efforts to solve it. 

I resorted to the theory of u Foreordination and 
Decrees.' 9 This theory affirms that " God from 
all eternity did by the most wise and holy counsel 
of His own will, freely and unchangeably ordain 
whatsoever comes to pass ; " and furthermore, that 
" God, the Great Creator of all things, doth up- 
hold, direct, dispose, and govern all creatures^ 
actions, and things, from the greatest even to the 
least, according to His infallible foreknowledge, 
and the free and immutable counsel of His own 
will." 

This theory has at least the merit of being bold 
and clear. It scorns to give any reason why the 
world is such as it is — why anything is as it is 
— save that God saw fit to have it so ! He has 
" ordained whatsoever comes to pass, according to 
the free and immutable counsel of His own will," 
and no one has any business with the why ! But 



THE PBOBLEM OF EVIL. 219 



no device has yet been invented to prevent intel- 
ligent men and women thinking ; and I had such 
thoughts about this theory of evil, and indeed of 
everything else, that I speedily relegated it to the 
limbo into which I had cast the theory predicated 
on Free-will. 

In the first place, it shocked my moral sense ; 
and one has the right to suspect any theory that 
does that. I felt that I had the same right to 
enquire into the moral quality of God's works 
that I had to enquire into the moral quality of 
my own works, or another's. Upon no other 
ground can moral responsibility be made to rest. 
God is not an Autocrat ; nor is He independent of 
responsibility to His creatures. It is nothing less 
than shocking, to say of a destructive earthquake 
that it occurred simply because God chose that it 
should occur ! — or to say the same thing of any 
other form of evil, natural or moral ! God, says 
Dr. Edward Beecher, is amenable to the laws of 
honor and right, and can no more violate those 
laws with impunity than can one of his creatures. 
If natural and moral evil cannot be reconciled 
with the laws of honor and right, — or, in other 
words, with absolute wisdom, goodness, and love, 
— then God is not good, and the problem of evil 
resolves itself into an arbitrary decree, for which 
there is no excuse. The problem of evil ceases 
to be a problem, and sheds its garb of mystery. 



220 



LIFE'S PBOBLEMS. 



It is seen to be nothing less than pure diabolism, 
with which the laws of honor and right have 
nothing to do. 

In the next place, I saw clearly enough that, 
if God has " ordained whatsoever comes to pass, 
according to the immutable counsel of His own 
will," the responsibility for " whatsoever comes to 
pass " rests with God and not with man. What- 
ever theory of evil we adopt, God is responsible 
for final results ; and not only for final results, 
but for the slightest sensation of pain in any one 
of his creatures. Any attempt to shift responsi- 
bility from the Creator to the creature, all men 
of sense and reflection must see, is illogical and 
futile. Nor is the responsibility of the Creator 
confined to final results. He is responsible for 
the present working of His plan ; and hence for 
the present utility of evil and its effectual control. 
"Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also 
reap," — and he is responsible for the harvest. 
This just law applies to God as well as to man ! 

So far, then, as reconciling evil with the wis- 
dom, goodness, and love of God is concerned, both 
Free-will and Foreordination are equally incom- 
petent. Foreordination decrees evil; Free-will 
permits it! Foreordination decrees that a cer- 
tain number of the human race shall be endlessly 
damned ; Free-will permits a certain number to 
be endlessly damned ! Are not these two theories 



THE PROBLEM OF EVIL. 



221 



essentially the same ? Both fail to reconcile evil 
with infinite wisdom, goodness, and love, and 
both outrage the immutable laws of honor and 
right. 

I now sought for the solution of the problem 
independent of all current theories. I was con- 
vinced that I must prospect the field on a plan of 
my own if I would attain satisfactory results. It 
was soon apparent that the first thing to be done 
was to discover, if possible, the purpose of God 
in creation. Why did God create anything? 
With what purpose was He animated ? A true 
answer to these questions, I said, will solve the 
problem of evil. The answer came in a way men 
are apt to call accidental. 

While engaged on this investigation, I passed, 
daily, a large brick and stone structure in pro- 
cess of erection. Stone, large and small, in in- 
numerable shapes; whole and broken brick by 
the thousand : timber and boards of various sizes 
and lengths ; rubbish and dirt on every hand, 
and all scattered about apparently in reckless 
confusion, were the salient features of the little 
territory on which the work was proceeding. It 
was not a picture of still life, by any means ; for 
numerous workmen were engaged on their sev- 
eral tasks, loaded teams were discharging their 
contents, and the air was resonant with the ring 
of trowels, the stroke of hammers, the creaking 



222 



LIFE'S PBOBLEMS. 



of derricks, and the spiteful puffs of a small steam 
engine. The structure itself was girt about with 
unsightly staging, and, to the unpracticed eye, 
gave slight indication of the plan or purpose of 
the architect. To me its future, in every respect, 
was a problem. 

One morning while pausing to look upon the 
busy scene and note the progress of the work, the 
clue I was seeking to the solution of my great 
problem — my bete noir, as I have styled it — 
was placed in my hand. What is the purpose of 
this structure ? — I enquired of one of the work- 
men. I was told that it was to be an immense 
cotton-mill, filled with ingenious machinery for 
the manufacture of cotton cloth ; and when com- 
pleted, thousands of spindles and looms, controlled 
by hundreds of men and women, would sing the 
song of labor from grey morn to dusky twilight 
the year round. 

"But why," I asked, "this rubbish, and shapeless 
unused material ? — and why this seeming confu- 
sion of movement and clashing antagonism of 
sounds? " 

" Incidents attending the work," he replied ; 
"not in any sense designed, nor ordained, nor 
the direct result of Free-will; but anticipated 
and provided for. The present incompleteness, 
the shapeless masses of material, the rubbish, 
dirt, and confusion, are unavoidable. They are 



THE PROBLEM OF EVIL. 223 



the necessary, unescapable accompaniments of 
the architect's plan ; and he has adopted the best 
possible plan. If you shall observe the work as 
it progresses from day to day, you will see order 
gradually taking the place of disorder, symmetry 
of shapelessness, harmony of confusion ; and, by 
and by, the structure completed and filled with 
the necessary machinery and skilled workmen, 
the staging taken down, the rubbish removed, and 
the grounds around it made beautiful, the wis- 
dom of the projectors, the skill and competency 
of the architect, and the beneficence of the work, 
will then be vindicated, and it will be regarded 
not only as a palace of industry, but an honor to 
all concerned in its erection. Thus every step, 
stage, and incident of the work has its interpreta- 
tion, and vindication, in necessity and purpose ! " 

I was not slow to follow the clue thus given 
me. The world, I said, is a building in process 
of erection. Its chief purpose is centred in the 
human race. From its beginning until now, we 
see only the rudimentary processes involved in 
the work. What we call natural evil, — storms, 
earthquakes, pestilence, premature death, and 
indeed every form of natural evil — is the neces- 
sary attendant on the development jf the plan. 
As the work goes on, evil lessens in volume and 
violence, and some of its forma entirely disappear. 
If we may determine the future by the history of 



224 



LIFE'S PROBLEMS. 



the past, there is reason to believe that ultimately 
natural evil will vanish from the globe and physi- 
cal order everywhere prevail. Specific facts in 
the earth's history point to this conclusion. 

The earth is a child of the sun, and was once 
a self-luminous star. All we now see was a nu- 
cleus of liquid fire enveloped in burning vapors ; 
and, for an inconceivable time, the earth glowed 
with fervent heat. 

Then came an age of water. The imagination 
cannot conceive the terrific drama that was en- 
acted before the water-age was fully established. 
Dense darkness covered the earth, through which 
fierce lightnings darted, and world-convulsing 
thunders echoed through the universe. During 
this age an ocean was formed that enveloped the 
globe, and the massive foundations of the earth 
were laid. The foundations of the great moun- 
tain ranges were established ages before they 
rose to the light of day. 

In successive order came vegetable life and the 
lower forms of animal life, and then dry land ap- 
peared. Through unnumbered ages the conti- 
nents grew; the great mountain ranges were 
uplifted ; the broad rivers and smaller streams 
carried the drainage of the valleys to the sea ; 
grass and trees clothed the earth; quadrupeds 
and huge sea monsters made their appearance, 
and the atmosphere was populated with birds and 
insects. 



THE PROBLEM OF EVIL. 



225 



But now came an age of ice, and nearly all 
Europe, a large section of North America, and 
all northern Asia was an immense ice-field. 
Desolation and destruction walked hand in hand. 
The convulsions of nature and destruction of life 
attending this period, as well as previous periods, 
were on a scale now inconceivable and unknown ; 
but the close of this period introduced the age of 
man. 

We cannot pause here to enumerate the further 
stages of the creative work since man made his 
appearance upon the earth, nor is this necessary; 
but in order to appreciate the progress the great 
Architect has made with His plan, and the cer- 
tainty of its final accomplishment, contrast any 
one of the early geological periods, or a landscape 
from one of those periods, with a modern land- 
scape in some favored part of the earth, and an 
appreciation of the almost immeasurable differ- 
ence will be comparatively easy. All along the 
line of the creative work, from the " beginning " 
to the present hour, there are unmistakable evi- 
dences of orderly advancement and amelioration. 
The energies of fire have been wasting ever since 
it was conquered by the ocean; and it is the 
opinion of able scientists that the earth, instead 
of being a shell as it once was, is now solid to the 
core. Indeed, "the volcano had been smitten 
with decrepitude even before the ocean had its 



226 



LIFE'S PB0BLEM8. 



birth. Extinct craters line nearly all the great 

mountain ranges of the globe. There are no less 
than fourteen extinct craters in our own Rocky 
Mountains. The earthquake, too, has been 
stricken with the palsy of age. It is now neither 
as frequent nor as violent as it was only two or 
three thousand years ago. In 1450 B. C. an 
earthquake, that has no parallel in modern times, 
desolated the Italian peninsula. In 33 B. C. an 
earthquake in Palestine destroyed thirty thousand 
people. In 459 B. C. an hundred towns were 
destroyed, a mountain in Greece was thrown 
down, valleys were filled up, rivers turned from 
their courses, and in China a lake was formed 
one hundred and sixty-eight leagues in circum- 
ference. At Antioch, 526 A. D. two hundred 
and fifty thousand people were killed ; and at 
Tabriz, in Persia, 104 A. D. fifty thousand. 
Modern statistics of earthquakes furnish no such 
figures. They are a terrible, but not an unmixed 
evil. Malet, one of the highest authorities on 
earthquakes, affirms that " they are as much the 
operation of one part of a benevolent plan as 
seed-time and harvest ; " and Professor Winchell 
maintains that both volcano and earthquake are 
beneficent agencies that have been wrought for 
the benefit of man ; and both authors cite many 
illustrations. One fact, touching the destructive- 
ness of earthquakes, is eminently worthy of record : 



THE PROBLEM OF EVIL. 



227 



More lives have been destroyed by war than by 
earthquakes ! 

But the destruction of life by battle has also 
greatly diminished. At the battle of Issus one 
hundred and ten thousand were slain of the Per- 
sians ; at the battle of Tours the loss reported by 
the old chroniclers was three hundred and seventy- 
five thousand ; at the battle of Cannae the loss 
was eighty thousand ; at the battle of Chalons the 
loss is variously stated at one hundred and sixty- 
two thousand — three hundred thousand. At 
the modern battle of Sadowa the killed, on both 
sides, was only six thousand seven hundred and 
ninety-three. 

The destruction of life by pestilence follows 
the same diminuent law. In Constantinople, 716 
A. D. two hundred thousand were swept off by 
the plague ; in Milan, 1524 A. D. fifty thousand ; 
in London 1665, A. D., sixty-eight thousand; in 
Naples and Sardinia, in six months, four hundred 
thousand. 

Facts compel us to believe that natural evil, as 
we have already stated, is steadily diminishing in 
volume and virulence, and at an ever accelerating 
ratio ; and its ultimate disappearance from the 
earth we are not permitted to doubt. By and by 
the staging will be taken down, and the rubbish 
vail be removed, and the wisdom and benevolence 
of the plan will be acknowledged and celebrated 



228 



LIFE'S PROBLEMS. 



by earth and heaven. But two conditions are 
necessary to ensure this result, — God, and Time. 
The perfection of God conceded, and time given, 
and the result is as certain and demonstrable as 
any proposition of mathematical science. 

"But what of moral evil?" queried a friend ; 
" what have you to say to that ? Has not moral 
evil its origin in man's intellectual and moral 
freedom, and is he not responsible for it ? " My 
answer was at once ready ; for in treating of 
natural evil I had foreseen that moral evil falls 
into the same category, and must be explained on 
similar principles. My answer was, — Man is re- 
sponsible for a certain amount of moral evil, and 
God is responsible for all of it / No pretext 
can shield God from responsibility for final re- 
sults. The amount of man's responsibility is not 
difficult to determine. In precisely the sense, 
and to the same extent that he is responsible for 
the results of certain natural evils, he is respon- 
sible for a certain amount of moral evil, — but for 
nothing further ! 

He is not responsible for volcanos ; but if he 
knowingly builds on the slope of one, or within 
possible reach of an eruption, for whatever results 
from such close proximity his responsibility is 
certain. 

He is not responsible for earthquakes ; but if, 
like the people of Lisbon, he should build on the 



THE PBOBLEM OF EVIL. 



229 



site of a great catastrophe, he would have no one 
to blame for future injury but himself. 

He is not always to blame for conditions that 
make pestilence possible ; but he is often to blame 
for its virulence and extent ; and sometimes for 
conditions that make it possible. 

He is not responsible for the devastating flood ; 
bnt he is responsible if he does not restrain it 
within possible limits. 

He is not responsible for having passions liable 
to be abused ; but he is responsible if he fails to 
restrain them. 

He is not responsible for the western cyclone ; 
but if, knowingly, he settles in a region of country 
where they are liable to occur, he must take the 
consequences, and he has no right to complain. 

He is responsible for disease that can be pre- 
vented, for ignorance that can be removed, for 
vice that can be exterminated. The system of 
rewards and punishments, that nature recognizes, 
is arranged with a view to the extermination of 
all evil that is the direct product of man's moral 
freedom. In every department of life nature is 
full of benevolent warnings, and suffering, from 
whatever cause resulting, is invariably overruled 
for good. No government can justly claim to be 
a moral government that does not do this. 
Moral evil, like natural evil, is, by no direct 
enactment of Deity, ordained nor permitted ; but 



230 



LIFE' 8 PBOBLEMS. 



growing out of the plan, as it does, and therefore 
being an unescapable incident attending the de- 
velopment of the plan, it is, in every sense of the 
word, provided for. It is not alloived to prevent 
the success of the plan! So therefore saith the 
Scripture : " The wrath of man shall praise the 
Lord, and the remainder thereof He will restrain." 
Any access of evil, natural or moral, that would 
endanger the success of the Great Architect's 
plan, is not allowed to occur ! And therefore 
every form of evil is diminishing as the ages go 
by. Its awful shadow is lessening. With in- 
finite skill it is made to play into the hands of 
the Divine Providence. And so again saith 
Scripture: u As for you," says Joseph to his 
brethren, " ye thought evil against me ; but God 
meant it unto good, to bring to pass as it is this 
day to save much people alive ! " 

This is the key to every mystery of evil. God 
has it thoroughly in hand, and it is bound to die. 
u The predestination of a Sovereign will," says 
Mrs. Stowe, " is written over all things. What 
calm in the thought of an overpowering will, so 
that will be crowned with goodness ! In times 
when 4 the waters roar and are troubled, and the 
mountains shake with the swelling thereof,' it 
has always been the refuge of God's people." 

Calling adown the ages, I heard an angel say- 
ing : " And all the inhabitants of the earth are 



THE PROBLEM OF EVIL. 



231 



reputed as nothing ; and He doeth according to 
His will in the army of heaven, and among the 
inhabitants of the earth ; and none can stay His 
hand, or say unto Him, What doest Thou? " 
Dan. 4,. 35. 

Enough. Here I rested, and here I rest to- 
day, in calm confidence awaiting the glorious 
result. 



DEATH OF LITTLE CHILDREN. 



Let us remember that those laws of Nature by which we suffer 
sometimes, and so severely, are always at work. The waVes of 
the sea support a thousand ships at the very time they engulf 
one. A thousand fountains descend from the hills to feed 
rivers and supply towns at the very time when the flood cuts 
for itself an irregular destructive course. A thousand vehicles 
traverse the streets safely while one is overthrown. 

— T. T. Lynch. 

1 am going to heaven! The sunset is very near!— and the 
child who went to heaven rose into the golden air and van- 
ished. 

— Dickens. 



CHAPTER XVI. 



DEATH OF LITTLE CHILDBEN. 

Not the least among the difficulties of my 
early ministry was a question, cognate to the gen- 
eral problem of evil, that perplexed me sorely, 
and for a time was the cause of much disquietude. 
I refer to the death of half the human race in 
infancy and childhood. The aspect the question 
assumed, the following incident will serve to 
illustrate. 

One day I was called to attend the funeral of 
a lovely boy who had died suddenly of an epi- 
demic disease. I found the mother in great dis- 
tress, and I did what I could to comfort her. I 
had passed beyond the sphere of professional 
platitudes and guesses, and I expressed my con- 
victions in strong, terse language. I spoke freely 
and positively of immortality. I asserted my 
belief that she would see, know, and be united to 
her child again, — that families apparently bro- 
ken by death would be restored in the heavenly 
home, — "no wanderer lost, a family in heaven." 



236 



LIFE'S PROBLEMS. 



But I could see that this, — and I said much 
more than this, — did not comfort her. She had 
the appearance of one who has received an injury. 

A short time after the funeral she invited me 
to spend an evening at her house ; and in the 
course of our interview she disclosed the cause of 
her trouble. "I believe in immortality," she 
said ; "I believe that I shall meet and know my 
child in heaven; I believe all you said about 
that ; but I don't believe in the goodness of God. 
Prove to me that God was just, and good, in 
taking from me my beautiful boy, and leaving 
so many children, not so beautiful nor so good, 
to live, grow up, and perhaps curse the world. " 

I was startled. All the while I was trying to 
comfort her with the glorious truths of immor- 
tality, and ultimate reunion, she was accusing 
God, and brooding over what she deemed an 
injury. That phase of the problem of evil had 
never before been pressed upon my attention, and 
I cautiously threw out certain feelers to help me 
determine my way. 

" God did not do it," I said ; " it resulted from 
fixed laws." 

" Who made the laws ? " she retorted ; "on 
whom rests the responsibility ? I care not if you 
say God, law, or nature ; for in either case the 
responsibility rests with the cause ; and, to my 
mind, the cause is neither just nor good." 



DEATH OF LITTLE CHILDREN. 



237 



"I see and appreciate your difficulty," I re- 
plied, " and I admit that the responsibility for 
the system that made possible the premature 
death of your child rests solely with its cause. 
And yet I believe that God is good — good at all 
times and in all places." 

" Prove this," she said, " and 1 will be ever- 
lastingly your debtor." 

I first endeavored to discover and interpret the 
fixed order of nature. I saw everywhere an im- 
mense procession of life in manifold forms, — from 
the zoophyte to man, — from the cryptogamia to 
the magnificent flora of the tropics, — from the 
grass-spire to the mountain pine. The prolifica- 
tion of nature, I discovered, is almost without 
limit, but that much of her handiwork perishes 
in infancy, and very little, comparatively, comes 
to perfection. Not every bud unfolds into leaf 
or flower ; not every flower develops into fruit ; 
not every fruit becomes ripened. It is so in the 
animal kingdom. An examination of the earth's 
strata discloses the fact that vast numbers of the 
lower forms of life are imbedded in the solid rock. 
While life-forms have steadily improved all along 
the line up to man, devastation of life marks the 
highest as well as the lowest stages. The weak 
have been swept away, and the strong have sur- 
vived. In the work of death nature, and man 
have co-operated, Such changes have taken 



238 



LIFE'S PBOBLEMS. 



place in the structure of the earth and in its 
climates, that the grosser forms have necessarily 
perished, and man has destroyed such as are in- 
imical to human life. Man, and nature, too, have 
warred mercilessly against man. The weak and 
unhealthy have secumbed to violence or disease, 
while the strong and healthy have escaped both. 
This is the order of nature to which there are no 
exceptions. Not one-half of the lower orders of 
life come to maturity, and only about one-half of 
the children born into the world survive child- 
hood. Whatever may be justly said of "the 
wisdom that cometh from above," it must be 
admitted that in respect to life and death "it is 
without partiality and without hypocrisy." 

But the bereaved mother had said, — " Prove 
to me that God was just and good in taking from 
me my beautiful boy, and leaving so many chil- 
dren, not so beautiful nor so good, to live, grow 
up, and perhaps curse the world." 

I had said in reply, — "God did not do it, it 
resulted from fixed laws." And 1 had also said, 
— "He never, in the sense you mean, took away 
anybody's child, and He never will." I now 
added, — " Say, if you choose, — 'The Lord gave, 
and the Lord hath taken away;' but if you 
mean that the Lord steps aside from his usual 
procedure in the natural order of things to in- 
flict premature death on one-half of his intelligent 



DEATH OF LITTLE CHILDBEN. 239 

offspring, — to say nothing of premature death 
among the lower orders of life — the assertion 
is simply not true. If it were true, not all the 
pulpits, and all the pens in all the world could 
vindicate his wisdom, justice or love ! " 

Premature death results from the same cause 
to which we have referred both natural and moral 
evil. It grows out of the nature and develop- 
ment of the general plan ; but, at the same time, 
there are specific and secondary causes that con- 
tribute to this result. 

First: The imperfection of life-forms, and of 
life, in every sentient kingdom of nature, is a 
potent cause. At best, we are but temporary 
occupants of the country we are now in. We 
are on the march ; and when a great army is on 
the march many fall out by the way, unable to 
bear the fatigue. In the grand march of life the 
weak and sickly fall and die ; the strong and 
healthy survive until the goal is won. But the 
army does not pause in its march because of the 
weakness, sickness, or death of some of the rank 
and file ; nor does the commander-in-chief kill off 
his weak and sickly soldiers. On the contrary, 
he does all he consistently can to preserve their 
lives. If any die, he is not justly chargeable with 
their death. The goal when won, will be so far 
beyond what mortal eye hath seen, or it hath 
entered into the heart of man to conceive, that 



240 



LIFE'S PROBLEMS. 



all will be moved to say, — " Our light afflic- 
tions, which were (comparatively) but for a 
moment, have wrought out for us a far more ex- 
ceeding and eternal weight of glory ! " 

Second : The ignorance and carelessness of 
sanitary laws, and of the causes and treatment of 
disease, that very generally prevail. Multitudes 
of persons are totally ignorant of the laws of 
heredity, by which the qualities of parents, physi- 
cal, mental and moral, are transmitted to their 
offspring ; or else they are recklessly disregardf ul 
of those laws. If a person marries, who is tainted 
with scrofula, consumption, insanity, or with any 
one of the multitude of nervous diseases, or in 
whose family any disease is hereditary, what ought 
he, or she, or both, to expect as the almost inevi- 
table result ? Sickly children, and premature 
death, of course. Many children, and adults, 
too, for that matter, are sacrificed by ignorant 
and incompetent physicians. I have witnessed 
several instances where I believed death was due, 
not to disease, but to ignorant treatment. It 
seems to me to be a frightful perversion of truth 
for any one to say, when death results from any 
of the causes here enumerated, — " The Lord 
gave, and the Lord hath taken away ; blessed be 
the name of the Lord ! " This, surely, is charg- 
ing God foolishly, and sinning with one's lips. 

Third : The end our Heavenly Father has in 



DEATH OF LITTLE CHILDBEN. 241 

view in begetting children " in his own image 
and likeness," I perceived must be taken as a 
cause including all other causes ! God has an 
end in view in the creation of his offspring. The 
rigid formulators of the Westminster catechism 
were not slow to perceive this, nor to give it em- 
phasis. "The chief end of man," they affirm, "is 
to glorify God and enjoy him forever." I be- 
lieve this most fervently. God's supreme aim is 
a heaven of the human race. Without the hu- 
man race to compose it, heaven is impossible ! 
Heaven, therefore, is founded on the human race ! 
And hence death is inevitable. Death is always 
busy doing the Lord's work. Its shards are 
everywhere thickly strown. When it is prema- 
ture, it is disorderly. When it transpires in old 
age, and from the gradual running down and 
wearing out of the physical machinery, it is 
orderly and not to be regretted. 

Ask anyone who has struggled up from a 
humble position in life to one of wealth and ease, 
if the attainment is worth all they have suffered 
and endured, and the answer will be, unhesitat- 
ingly — yes. If it were left with anyone to 
decide to accept or reject life, with all its mani- 
fold evils, but with the certainty of eternal prog- 
ress and happiness beyond its earthly terminus, 
it is certain that the verdict would be to accept. 
Is not this a cogent answer to all our complain- 



242 



LIFE'S PBOBLEMS. 



ings, and a complete vindication of the justice 
and goodness of God. On its worst possible 
terms, life is worth living ! 

But I came to see, convincingly, that in the 
death of little children the loving kindness of 
God is most eminently shown. He cannot pre- 
vent their death, and so he makes it a source of 
unspeakable blessing. Chauncey Giles has so 
well stated what I would say here that I must 
quote his words : 

"They are free from all contagion of evil 
example, from the temptations of wicked compan- 
ions, and the imperfect methods and false princi- 
ples of the schools of earth. They never will be 
taught anything that is untrue ; they will never 
have any lessons to unlearn. Their delicate 
natures will not be subject to the rude and blind 
treatment that children receive in this life. The 
angels will love them with a tenderness greater 
than a mother's ; they will know how to touch 
the secret springs of their innocent natures ; and 
all their faculties will develop in beautiful order 
and harmony, as the bud unfolds into the blossom, 
and develops into fruit. No shadow will fall 
upon their hearts ; no tears will ever dim their 
eyes ; they will have no hard and repulsive tasks 
to perform ; they will never go astray. The in- 
nocence of infancy will never receive a stain; 
and the elastic, bounding joys of childhood will 



DEATH OF LITTLE CHILD BEN. 243 



never be repressed. They will grow up into the 
manly strength and feminine grace of adult age ; 
they will attain the wisdom, the culture, the come- 
liness, and the ineffable beauty and blessedness 
of the angels, by processes of order, harmony, and 
ever increasing delight." " Their angels," said 
Jesus, " do always behold the face of my Father 
which is in heaven." 

Is this no compensation to bereaved parents 
for their loss ? Moreover : bereavement is often 
attended with results, that, it is more than proba- 
ble, could not by other means be secured. It 
was within my knowledge that one of the fore- 
most men of this nation was made sober, steady 
and God-fearing, by the death of his children, 
who were swept off in a few short weeks by a 
deadly epidemic. This is, by no means, a single 
case. Is not all our misery, — not appointed for 
acceptance or submission, — used by the wise 
and benevolent God to induce discontent, insur- 
rection, and amendment ? " Why ! " exclaims 
George Macdonald, " what sort of men and 
women should we be without sin and sorrow ! " 
By sin, and sorrow, and suffering, we are made 
to discover our sins, and our most interior needs, 
and are educated thereby into such men and 
women as the Lord needs in his uppermost 
kingdom." 

And is there not yet another form of compen- 



244 



LIFE'S PBOBLEMS. 



sation that comes to those who are bereaved of 
their children ; namely, their subsequent ministra- 
tions in our life ? This was suggested to me on 
reading a beautiful poem addressed to a bereaved 
mother, by John Quincy Adams. The following 
extract will be appreciated. 

" Sure, to the mansions of the blest 

When infant innocence ascends, 
Some angel, brighter than the rest, 

The spotless spirit's flight attends. 
On wings of ecstasy they rise, 

Beyond where worlds material roll, 
Till some fair sister of the skies 

Receives the unpolluted soul. 

" Of their short pilgrimage on earth 

Still tender images remain, 
Still, still they bless thee for their birth, 

Still filial gratitude retain. 
Each anxious care, each rending sigh, 

That wrung for them the parent's breast, 
Dwells on remembrance in the sky, 

Amid the raptures of the blest. 

" O'er thee, with looks of love they bend, 

For thee the Lord of life implore, 
And oft from sainted bliss descend, 

The wounded quiet to restore. 
Oft, in the stillness of the night, 

They smooth the pillow of thy bed, 
Oft, till the morn's returning light, 

Still watchful hover o'er thy head. 



DEATH OF LITTLE CHILDBEN. 245 

" Hark ! in such strains as saints employ, 

They whisper to thy bosom peace, 
Calm the perturbed heart to joy, 

And bid the streaming sorrow cease. 
Then dry, henceforth, the bitter tear, 

Their part and thine inverted see, — 
Thou wert their guardian angel here, 

They guardian angels now to thee." 

One possible question, only, remains ; and my 
lady friend was not slow to press it, — " Why, 
then, do not all children die in infancy ? " My 
answer was, — " The human race would then have 
been impossible. Beyond a dozen, or so, of in- 
dividuals, there would have been no human race ! 
Suppose that all infants now born were to die in 
infancy or childhood, the human race upon the 
earth would become extinct within three genera- 
tions ! " 

Thus again I vindicated, to my own satisfaction, 
the wisdom, goodness, and love of God ; and 
Jesus seemed to repeat again his words of admo- 
nition to his narrow minded disciples, — " Suffer 
little children to come unto me, and forbid them 
not ; for of such is the kingdom of heaven ! " 



PROVIDENCE. 



A fit of passion in Mrs. Meshan arrested the course of Marl- 
borough's victory and preserved the tottering kingdom of 
France; a charge of a few squadron of horse under Kellerman, 
at Marengo, fixed Napoleon on the consular throne; and 
another, with no greater force, against the flank of the old guard 
at Waterloo, cliained him to the rock of St. Helena.— Sir Archi- 
bald Alison. 

Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? And one of them 
shall not fall to the ground without your Father. But the very 
hairs of your head are all numbered.— Jesus. 



CHAPTER XVII. 



PBOVIDENCE. 



One summer evening, several years ago, I sat 
on the porch* of a friend in the midst of a group 
of young people, and, until late into the night 
discussed with them the difficult problems in- 
volved in the ever-recurring questions of chance, 
fate, fortune in life, the time of one's death, the 
influence of the stars in the devolopment of char- 
acter, and the destiny of the human soul. The 
discussion gradually took the form of dialogue ; 
and, of the group, I was undoubtedly the most 
interested party. For I had not then settled 
down into fixed convictions on either of these 
most perplexing questions. I had frequently 
been plied with them, both by the curious and 
the anxious, and had, as frequently, taken refuge 
in mystery. But that evening's discussion cleared 
up, in a large degree, my mental atmosphere, and 
divested the investigation of much of the haze 
that, hitherto, had made it a tedious perplexity. 



250 



LIFE' 8 PBOBLEMS. 



Since then I have gone over the ground again 
and again, and always with careful painstaking ; 
but I have seen no reason to dissent from the 
conclusion I then reached ; to wit : The theory 
that reduces creation and life — animate, or in- 
animate — to the action of irreversible mechani- 
cal laws, is unqualifiedly and absolutely false ! 
The inanimate creation may be so controlled, but 
the animate certainly is not. This, I think, is 
demonstrable. 

1. Of the inanimate creation, take for example 
the movements of the heavenly bodies, and of our 
earth, in space. These are ordered with math- 
ematical exactness ; so that 

" Not one of nature's million wheels, 
Breaks its appointed path." 

Hence, an eclipse of sun or moon, the con- 
junction of planets, the flight of comets, the ebb 
and flow of the tides, the going and coming of 
the seasons, can be predicted with absolute cer- 
tainty. Inanimate nature is " bound fast in fate." 
An unthinking, unfeeling mass of matter, with- 
out the attributes of instinct, reason, or will, all 
its movements are determined by the Wisdom 
and Power that gave it being, and which are 
equal to every possible emergency. 



PBOVIDENCE. 



251 



2. But animate creation is not thus conditioned. 
It is endowed with instinct, reason, will; and, 
therefore, its actions are often indeterminate and 
uncertain. For example : The destiny of a human 
being can be forecast with unerring precision ; 
but how a human being will act, under all cir- 
cumstances, or under any given set of circum- 
stances, no one can tell. Ultimates may be 
predicted, being logically derived; but the per- 
turbations of a soul, that lie between cause and 
effect, cannot be predicted, because they are de- 
pendent on the action of imperfect reason, and 
uncertain will. 

3. Conscience, too, enters the problem and adds 
to the uncertainty. Conscience is a moral power, 
— a sort of spiritual regulator, — that arises out 
of a perception of duty, and the sense of moral 
obligation, and is therefore the divinely appointed 
master of both the reason and the will. If it 
were always certain that reason and will would 
assert themselves over outward circumstances and 
interior states, and that the conscience would 
assert itself over reason and will, and subordinate 
them to its perception of what is true and right ; 
and if it were certain that the perception of con- 
science would always be in harmony with truth 
and right, there would then be no more difficulty 
in forecasting human conduct and its results, 
than attaches to the mathematical process of fore- 



252 



LIFE'S PBOBLEMS. 



casting an eclipse. But the conditions of the 
problem are so numerous and difficult, and the 
uncertainty is now so great, that precision is out 
of the question. 

4. The truth is, the moment we step out of the 
domain of pure physics into the domain of mental 
and moral action, we are at once launched upon 
a sea of boundless contingency and chance, — a 
veritable mare tenebrarum. 

5. I could but perceive, therefore, that chance 
attaches to the development of human life. But 
it is not the product of fickle fortune nor of 
Divine appointment, nor yet of blind caprice. It 
is not, as the old Greeks believed, a heaven-born 
child of the gods. It is begotten of that which 
confers dignity on character, and allies man to 
his Maker. But not in the remotest degree does 
it absolve from moral responsibility ; nor has any 
one the right to plead in defence of wrong doing, 
nor in abatement of any misfortune, the resistless 
agency of chance ! There is no purely mechani- 
cal arrangement that runs life in fixed grooves. 
A wide field and fair play is before every human 
being, and a certain flexibility of action is 
allowed ; but while tossed about by exterior cir- 
cumstances and interior passion, we are rigidly 
held responsible, under all phases of our develop- 
ment, by the absolute truth and the absolute 
morality, for the measure of our capacities, our 
light, and our means of light. 



PBOVWENCE. 



253 



6. According to the Stoics, every event is de- 
termined by fate. In the Greek mythology cer- 
tain goddesses, — Klotho, Lachesis, and Atropos, 
— were supposed to preside over the birth and 
life of men. The peoples with whom Sanskrit 
and Zend were vernacular, employed the words 
rita and ratu to express the fixedness of things ; 
and hence they believed that not only " all is 
right," but that "all will be right." In the 
Vedas, and in the Avesta, this conviction is stated 
with great positiveness. 

7. But fate, or fixedness, can be properly ap- 
plied, — like the word chance, — only to the 
mechanics of inanimate nature, and to the pur- 
poses of the Divine Mind with respect to results. 
Actions that depend upon the uncertain deter- 
minations of the conscience and the will, cannot 
be fated. 

8. And yet a majority of people firmly believe 
in a " run of good fortune," or of " ill luck." But 
under the absolute control of fate there would be 
no difference between a man and a machine, or 
between a man and a star ; the action of both be- 
ing determined by conditions and forces wholly 
independent of themselves. 

9. It is true that, sometimes, there is a succes- 
sion of events in life that look like an independ- 
ent current, suddenly injected into the main 
stream. But that is simply a deceptive appear- 



254 



LIFE'S PBOBLEMS. 



ance. There is no succession of events, good or 
bad, that is not the logical result of prior prem- 
ises. 

10. Say that we are occasionally helped, 
guided, protected, by angelic influence, — which 
I firmly believe to be true, — the possibility of 
such influence must depend upon certain mental 
and spiritual states, mainly within our control. 
The Bible promises of angelic aid strictly conform 
to this condition. In every instance they are 
predicated upon trust in God, and conformity to 
certain spiritual laws. Thus the 91st Psalm: 
" He that dwelleth in the secret place of the 
Most High, shall abide under the shadow of the 
Almighty. Surely He shall deliver thee from 
the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome 
pestilence. A thousand shall fall at thy side, and 
ten thousand at thy right hand ; but it shall not 
come nigh to thee. Because thou hast made the 
Lord, which is my refuge, even the Most High, 
thy habitation, there shall no evil befall thee, 
neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling. 
For He shall give his angels charge over thee, to 
keep thee in all thy ways." 

11. " Eun of ill luck " results from conditions 
the reverse of these, and is their logical sequence. 
A proud spirit, indomitable self-conceit, supreme 
confidence in one's own resources, — from such a 
combination of personal qualities comes no good ! 



PROVIDENCE. 



255 



Therefore the admonition : " Trust in the Lord 
with all thine heart, and lean not to thine own 
understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge 
Him, and He shall direct thy paths." (Prov., 3., 
5.) " Commit thy way unto the Lord ; trust also 
in Him ; and He shall bring it to pass." " I 
have seen the wicked in great power, and spread- 
ing himself like a green bay tree. Yet he passed 
away, and lo, he was not : yea, I sought him but 
he could not be found." " He shall deliver them 
from the wicked, and save them, because they 
trust in Him." (Psa. 37. 5, 40,) 

This is fate, — the fate that follows an evil 
life, — the fate that follows a life of obedience 
and trust ; and, besides this, there is no fate ! 

12. But does not prophecy present a serious 
obstacle to this statement ? Is it possible to pre- 
dict future events on other than fatalistic condi- 
tions? How is the prophet able to sweep out 
into the future across long centuries, and unerr- 
ingly predict the events that are certain to tran- 
spire, together with their results ? If the actions 
of individuals, and the fate of nations be not 
determined by a power outside themselves, how 
can they be foreseen and forecast by the prophet? 

The " logic of events " followed through from 
beginning to end, — unerring deduction from 
cause to effect, — direct spiritual illumination, — 
either of these methods may be the instrumen- 



256 



LIFE'S PBOBLEMS. 



tality by which the prophet is able to disclose the 
future. When the individual is exalted far above 
his ordinary mental state, and is made to see the 
future, — like successive scenes in an unfolding 
panorama, — the instrumentality is spiritual illu- 
mination, induced by angels, — or by a power 
above the angels. The prophet sees, hears, 
knows ; but the angel sees " the logic of events," 
and makes them known. The old Bible prophets, 
we infer from the narrative, were illuminated by 
angels. 

13. There is a fine illustration of these methods 
of prophecy in the closing chapters of Deuter- 
onomy. Moses predicts the future of his people 
over a period of fourteen hundred and fifty years. 
He declares their ultimate downfall and utter 
ruin. But this prediction is based on the fact 
that they would go after strange gods, and for- 
sake the covenant the Lord had made with them. 
He says : " I know their imagination which they 
go about, even now." Their ultimate downfall 
might be safely deduced from their previous his- 
tory, habits, temperament, and surroundings; but 
the absolute certainty of the result must have 
been assured by spiritual illumination. The na- 
tion that should besiege and destroy Jerusalem, 
and the incidents that should transpire in the 
siege, must have been similarly made known. 
From first to last, events were linked together 
with logical precision. 



PBOVIDENCE. 



257 



It would not, therefore, be an inapt definition 
of prophecy, to style it, — a revelation of the logic 
of events, together with their incidents and 
results. 

14. But what of the stars? What of astrology? 
It is believed, — and not altogether by the igno- 
rant, — that the heavenly bodies have a powerful 
influence on the tenor and fortunes of human 
life. In the earliest times, and, indeed, up to a 
very recent date, astrology and astronomy were 
associated. Has astrology any foundation in 
fact? 

Yes, — but in a very limited degree. It is not 
true that a child born " under" a particular 
planet, or combination of planets, is sure to pur- 
sue a certain course of conduct through life. But 
it is true that the heavenly bodies exert a marked 
influence on vegetable and animal development. 
Farmers and husbandmen have noticed this fact, 
almost from time imemorial. Seeking practical 
results in the cultivation of their farms, and in 
the management of their stock, ignorant or edu- 
cated, they have always carefully observed it. 

15. There is, undoubtedly, a favorable time, 
and an unfavorable time to be born. But favor- 
able, or unfavorable, no such time as to mechan- 
ically determine character, absolve one from 
self-control, or from obedience to the laws of God, 
or man. 



258 



LIFE'S PBOBLEMS. 



Atmospheric influences, — derived in part 
from the planetary bodies of our solar systtem, - — 
go far to determine temperament, and certain 
functional conditions of the nervo-mental struct- 
ure, and so far help to "make the man;" but 
further than that we dare not affirm. In fact, 
astrology has but a slim basis in truth on which 
to stand ! 

16. But is the term of human life fated ? Sol- 
omon affirms, " There is a time to be born, and a 
time to die." Job asserts, "Man's bounds are 
set, and he cannot pass." Paul says, " He hath 
determined the times before appointed, and the 
bounds of their habitation." Is this scientifically 
true ? 

Not altogether. Not mathematically and in- 
flexibly. We should be careful not to shut off 
God from control of His works by accepting un- 
sound premises, or drawing absurd conclusions ! 
The term of life is not decreed. There is always 
a need, and a place, for human prudence ; and 
everywhere throughout the Bible, long life is 
promised the strictly obedient, and sudden prema- 
ture death is threatened the disobedient. 

When the wicked, — be it individual or nation, 
— have "filled up the measure of their iniquity," 
they are removed. Stumbling-blocks, poisonous 
fountains to others, serving no uses, they are 
taken out of the way. Or, one may be needed in 



DEATH OF LITTLE CHILDBEN. 



259 



the heavens, with reference to work there ; or to 
work upon the earth, from heavenly vantage- 
ground ; and then no skill can avail to keep them 
here. 

There is a work, appointed by the Divine Prov- 
idence, for each one to do ; and the doing of it, 
or not doing of it, in conformity to Divine Order, 
is the pivot upon which all other considerations 
turn. If our appointed work be well done, we 
shall remain here until it is consummated. If it 
be done disorderly, or not done at all, it may be 
said of us, as it was wisely said of the Sodomites, 
— " He took them away as He saio good ! " Is it 
all conjectural that herein lies the true explana- 
tion of many a premature death ? 

17. There is then no chance, no fate, no abso- 
lute fixedness, pertaining to human affairs or to 
human life. But nothing is " left at loose ends." 
An Infinite Divine Providence everywhere pre- 
sides. " A sparrow cannot fall to the ground 
without its notice ; " and to say that it " numbers 
the hairs of our heads," is only significant of its 
infinite minuteness. As generals comprehend par- 
ticulars, it is not only in all generals, but also in 
all particulars. And so it is exterior and interior; 
universal and minute. And everywhere it acts 
for ends of use. It is building the human race 
up into a glorious blessed heaven, and it cannot 
be diverted from this object. It makes "the 



260 



LIFE'S PBOBLEMS. 



wrath of man to praise the Lord, and the re- 
mainder thereof," — all beyond that use, — "it 
restrains." It is always busy, and always acces- 
sible. It modifies here, and enlarges there, and 
is, what its name implies, — Divine Providence. 
In a word, — it is our Heavenly Father acting a 
Father's part toward all His intelligent crea- 
tures. 

18. When I had reached this conclusion, I 
read to my friends the Quaker's poem, — even 
Whittier's : 



" I know not what the future hath 

Of marvel or surprise, 
Assured, alone, that life and death 

His mercy underlies. 

" Yet in the maddening maze of things, 
And tossed by storm and flood, 

To one fixed star my spirit clings : 
I know that God is good. 

" And if my heart and flesh are weak 

To bear an untried pain, 
The bruised reed he will not break, 

But strengthen and sustain. 

u And so beside the silent sea 

I wait the muffled oar ; 
No harm from Him can come to me 

On ocean or on shore. 



DEATH OF LITTLE CHILDREN. 

" I know not where His islands lift 
Their fronded palms in air ; 

I only know I cannot drift 
Beyond His love and care." 



PRAYER. 



More things are wrought by prayer 
Than this world dreams of. Wherefore let thy voice 
Rise like a fountain for me night and day. 
For what are men better than sheep or goats 
That nourish a blind life within the brain, 
If, knowing God, they lift not hands of prayer 
Both for themselves, and those who call them friend? 
For so the whole round earth is every way 
Bound by gold chains about the feet of God. 

— Tennyson, 



CHAPTER XVIII. 



PBAYEB. 

My first and earliest impressions touching 
prayer, may be classified under three heads : 
First, that prayer is pleasing to God; and, 
therefore, men ought to pray. Second, that 
prayer is a way of asking God not to be angry 
with us and plunge us into hell on account of 
the sin of Adam, or because of our own sin. 
Third, that prayer is a means of obtaining cer- 
tain spiritual blessings that cannot be obtained 
by other means. 

For a season these early impressions were sat- 
isfactory ; but it is seldom that our early impres- 
sions are permanent. In my own case, increas- 
ing years, better acquaintance with Scripture, a 
profounder knowledge of facts, and a clearer 
appreciation of their significance, made the 
abandonment of these early impressions inev- 
itable. 

The next step led to the adoption of the 
rationalistic, or mechanical theory. I then re- 



266 



LIFE'S PROBLEMS. 



garded prayer as wholly negative as respects 
God. He hears, and is pleased; but He does 
nothing because of prayer that He would not 
have done without it. In effect, a person pray- 
ing simply turns the crank of his own machine 
and prays to himself ! The cold-blooded rigidity 
of this theory, as well as its intrinsic absurdity, 
and its unmistakable conflict with ascertained 
facts, soon made it unbearable, and I gave 
it up. 

The difficulties that good Christian people, 
and those naturally sceptical, have with regard 
to prayer, are truly formidable. Here is a 
specimen of those most common — and, I may 
add, that most stubbornly resist rational reduc- 
tion — that I copy from a letter addressed to me 
by a friend : 

" Through what medium does prayer reach 
God ? How are opposing or contradictory pray- 
ers answered? From thousands of churches, 
prayer-meetings, family altars and private re- 
treats, all over the civilized world, and all 
over the civilized world at the same moment, 
prayer is being addressed to God. Does He hear 
all these prayers ? During the slaveholders 5 re- 
bellion sincere praj^ers were offered that the 
North might prevail ; and similiar prayers were 
offered in the rebellious States in behalf of the 



PBAYEB. 



267 



South. Were these prayers heard and answered? 
If so, how ? The North prevailed. Was it be- 
cause of prayer ? And why should the praying 
North receive a favorable answer rather than the 
praying South ? " 

While I held the theories of prayer just men- 
tioned, I could not help any one out of such dif- 
ficulties and maintain my hold on prayer. I 
conld not help myself out. Not until I fully 
understood the relation of father and child, in 
its absolute fullness — the precise relations that 
exist between God and man — did my way 
through their intricacies become apparent. That 
relation understood, and all that relates to God's 
economy toward man may be understood. What 
I then came to believe may be formulated in the 
following propositions : 

1. To pray is natural. 

2. To pray is instinctive. 

3. God has promised, through instinct and 
revelation, to hear and answer prayer. 

4. Prayer has been heard and answered. 

5. Prayer, therefore, affects God. 

6. Prayer, therefore, affects man. 

7. It is a means of procuring material and 
spiritual blessings that cannot be procured with- 
out it. 

8. God is supreme, both in the realm of mat- 
ter and the realm of souls. 



268 



LIFE'S PBOBLEMS. 



These propositions embody my present convic- 
tions, and I now propose to attempt their elucida- 
tion and defence : 

1. That prayer is natural is proven by the 
historical fact of its universality. Individual 
exceptions are not denied — very gross excep- 
tions — but did any one ever hear, or know, of 
an utterly prayerless people ? Prayers and 
hymns abound in the most ancient literature. 
They comprise the bulk of the oldest Veda of 
the Hindus. They are the substance of the 
Gathas of the Avesta ; anterior, perhaps, to the 
time of Abraham. Confucius recognized the 
duty of prayer by saying, " I have prayed for a 
long time." The Buddhists, from the time of 
their founder to the present day, have been 
famous for the number and the constancy of 
their prayers. Among all Gentile peoples 
prayer has always been one of the daily ex- 
ercises of life. In ancient times prayer was so 
common, and held in such high estimation, that 
plays upon the stage were introduced with 
prayer. 

One thing is certain — prayer was not the in- 
vention of Jews, nor of Christians, nor of Pagan 
priests ! The priesthood have always been quick 
enough to take up and utilize a natural tendency, 
but they have never yet invented one ! A prac- 



PBAYEB. 



269 



tice so ancient, so wide-spread, so persistent, can- 
not have been an invention superinduced by a 
cunning priesthood upon mankind. The only 
rational explanation of the fact is, that among 
the faculties of the soul is a praying faculty, 
and prayer is its natural exercise and out- 
come. 

2: This conclusion is enforced by the fact that 
prayer is instinctive. Under certain circum- 
stances it is inevitable ; and hence the wicked 
and ignorant, as well as the good and intelli- 
gent, do sometimes pray. I have noticed that 
the most reckless persons, and those exceed- 
ingly wicked, instinctively pray when in great 
peril. Like drowning men, who clutch at 
straws, they fly to their gods. The form of 
their prayer is inconsequential. It may be but 
a single ejaculation, or it may be measured, or 
impetuous, or grieving, or sad and sorrowful, or 
a business statement of one's actual needs ; 
whatever the form, it is prayer. It is a recog- 
nition of spiritual realities ; the cry of spirit to 
spirit ; conscious that somewhere in the un- 
seen is lodged the needed assistance, and that 
by such means forbearance or protection may be 
secured. It is the child who, in peril or fright, 
exclaims — Father ! 

Is this nothing but deception ? — nothing more 
than spontaneous nervous or muscular action? 



270 



LIFE ' 8 PB OBLEMS. 



Where, among all God's creatures, is there a 
cry without objective meaning? — a call that is 
only the equivalent of a mechanical sound? — 
a need for which there is no supply ? An eye 
indicates that there is something to see ; an ear, 
the possibility of sound ; a stomach, necessary 
and legitimate food ; a hairless and delicate skin, 
needful clothing ; a religious nature, the spiritual 
and immortal; natural and instinctive prayer, 
One who hears and answers prayer ! If this be not 
so, the chain of cause and effect, and the law of 
need and supply are broken, and no fact in God's 
universe has any certain significance. Science, 
as well as experience, negatives this conclusion 
and pronounces it untenable. The laws of cause 
and effect, and of need and supply, are estab- 
lished and irreversible, and an highway, so 
plain that even the simple need not err therein, 
leads up to the Unknown — even to God. 

8. Is it in the least surprising — seeing that 
prayer is both natural and instinctive — that 
God has promised to hear and answer prayer ? 
He has certainly made this promise, and He has 
communicated it to man in two distinct, but 
essentially different ways : First, through natu- 
ral instinct; and second, by direct revelation. 
The first meets the wants of the sceptic ; the 
second the wants of the Christian. 

The instinctive communication of the promise 



PRAYER. 



271 



consists in the fact that what man is instinctively 
moved to do, he instinctively feels assured is 
necessary and beneficial to be done. Are we 
thus mocked by imperious nature, or by an auto- 
cratic God? What animal is thus mocked? 
Not one. Nor is man thus mocked. His expe- 
rience invariably confirms instinct, and he is thus 
led where reason cannot go. Reason, without 
education, is a blind guide, and at best its range 
is very limited. But where reason fails, instinct 
takes its place. Animals avoid innutritious and 
poisonous vegetation, but they do not rationally 
discriminate. Touching certain subjects, and in 
certain emergencies, we are apt to say, reason 
tells me this is so ; or to do this ; when, in fact, 
no attempt at reasoning has transpired. We 
have simply used the WTong word. We are 
moved, in such cases, by instinct. Independent 
of education, reasoning, op even experience, the 
duty and utility of prayer is recognized by intel- 
ligent beings the world over, and men instinc- 
tively pray. This is the seal of legitimacy that 
God has set upon prayer. Revelation comes in 
and defines its limits and laws, and enforces it as 
a sacred duty. Results are left with God ; but 
no man who faithfully and confidingly prays, but 
soon realizes that prayer is a spiritual plough- 
share that prepares the soul for a bountiful har- 
vest, and that the deeper it is driven the more 
certain and satisfactory will be the result. 



272 



LIFE'S PBOBLEMS. 



Direct revelation with regard to prayer, is 
copious and explicit. It has been well said that 
the promises are so " exceeding great and 
precious " we cannot conceive that God really 
means what he says. We " stagger at the prom- 
ises through unbelief/' and blindly rush upon 
the consequences. Nevertheless, here are a 
specimen few that will serve to show how 
great and explicit they are : 

" Ask and it shall be given you." 

"If ye then, being evil, know how to give 
good gifts to your children, how much more shall 
your Father in heaven give good gifts to those 
who ask him." 

" I say unto you if two of you shall agree on 
earth touching anything ye shall ask, it shall be 
done for them of my Father which is in heaven. 
For where two or three are gathered together in 
my name, there am I in the midst of them." 

" Therefore I say unto you, whatsoever things 
ye desire, when ye pray, believing that ye re- 
ceive them, and ye shall have them." 

" Verily I say unto you, whatsoever ye shall 
ask the Father in my name, He will give it 
you." 

" The effectual fervent prayer of the righteous 
man availeth much." 

" If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, 
ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done 
unto you." 



PBAYEB. 



273 



" Pray without ceasing, and in every thing give 
thanks." 

u Men ought always to pray and not to faint." 

"I will therefore that men pray everywhere, 
lifting up holy hands without wrath or doubting." 

" He shall pray for thee, and thou shalt live." 

" The Lord appeared to Solomon by night, and 
said to him, I have heard thy prayer. . . If my 
people, which are called by my name, shall hum- 
ble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and 
turn from their 'wicked v:ays, then will I hear 
from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will 
heal their land." 

" Draw nigh unto God, and He shall draw nigh 
unto you." 

; * The prayer of faith shall heal the sick, and 
the Lord shall raise him up." 

Such are the promises touching prayer con- 
tained in the Bible ; and if its testimony may be 
trusted it is certain that God has promised to 
hear and answer prayer. Is its testimony reli- 
able ? Plainly, — does the Bible tell the truth ? 
Whether its testimony has any support outside of 
itself, will appear further on. For the present 
let not the fact of the promises be lost sight of, 
through the interposition, at this stage of the 
discussion, of doubts and difficulties. The most 
formidable of these will be thoroughly examined 
in the proper place. Meanwhile let us advance, 
in logical sequence, to the fourth proposition : 



274 



LIFE'S PBOBLEMS. 



4. Prayer has been heard and answered, in 
fulfilment of the promise. Here, again, Bible 
testimony is abundant ; too abundant to be quoted 
here at length. Reference to a few of the most 
important instances, without giving the full texts 
in which they are related, will be quite sufficient : 

Abimelech was healed, through prayer, by 
Abraham. Gen. XX, 17. 

Again, and again, the prayer of Moses, in 
behalf of the wicked and rebellious Jews, was 
answered. Num. XI, 2 : XXI, 7. Deut. IX. 
20-26. 

Though prayer Hannah obtained a favorable 
answer to her petition, and the desire of her 
heart was granted. 1 Sam. I, 10 - 27. 

Elisha's prayer for the restoration of the dead 
son of the Shunammite woman, was signally 
answered by the recovery of the boy. 2 Kings 
IV, 18. 

Through prayer, the men sent to capture 
Elisha, were stricken blind, and he escaped out 
of their hands. 2 Kings VI, 17. 

The prayers of Hezzekiah and Isaiah saved the 
kingdom of Judah from the Assyrian, Sennach- 
erib ; and his army was overtaken by a frightful 
disaster, in which an hundred thousand men per- 
ished. 2 Chron. XXXII, 20. 

Hezzekiah himself was saved from deadly sick- 
ness through prayer. 2 Kings XX, 21. 



PEA YEB. 



275 



Through prayer Daniel was saved from the 
lions, and through the same means he effected 
the restoration of his people to their native land. 
Dan. VI, 10 : IX, 4. 

Through prayer Peter raised Dorcas from the 
dead. Acts IX, 36. 

Cornelius, " a devout man who feared God, and 
prayed to him alway," saw in a vision an angel, 
who said unto him : " Thy prayers and thine alms 
are come up for a memorial before God ; " and 
then he gave him directions what to do, and the 
whole announcement of Peter's vision concerning 
the Gentile world. Acts X, 1-4. 

Through prayer Paul healed Publius of a 
bloody flux ; and Paul and Silas were delivered 
from prison at Philippi by an angel. Acts XVI, 
19 : XXVIII, 8. 

The rescue of Peter from the power of the 
Sanhedrin, in one case, and from Herod, in 
another, was in answer to prayer. 

Indeed, the Bible, from beginning to end, is 
one compact history of prayer and its practical 
achievements. It is prominent in its account of 
national, tribal, and individual movements. It 
circulates an uninterrupted stream through its 
promises and threatenings, and is so marked a 
feature of its tone, that the truth or falsity of the 
Bible is inextricably interwoven with the truth or 
falsity of its statements touching prayer. Once 



276 



LIFE' 8 PBOBLEMS- 



more the question is pertinent : Does the Bible 
tell the truth ? 

5. When the discussion had reached this point, 
the above question was forced upon me with pe- 
culiar emphasis. The conclusions I had derived 
from the evidence before me, I felt were Scrip- 
turally and philosophically unassailable ; but how 
am I to know, I queried, that what the Bible 
relates, and most solemnly affirms, is true? Is 
there outside testimony, of a secular character, 
sufficient in strength and volume to sustain and 
verify its assertions? The student of ancient 
and modern history — particularly of biography 
— knows that there is an enormous amount of 
evidence that answers to prayer have been a 
common occurrence every year, and every day in 
the year. The history of persecutions, wars, re- 
forms, revivals, institutions of benevolence, of 
individual trials and sufferings, are filled with 
most remarkable accounts of answers to prayer. 
The Bible is not the only book that contains the 
evidence. In proof of this statement some illus- 
trations from actual life are now in order. 

CASE OF WASHINGTON ALLSTON. 

Soon after Allston's marriage with his first 
wife, the sister of the late Dr. Channing, he 
made his second visit to Europe. After a resi- 
dence there of little more than a year, his pecu- 



PBAYEB. 



277 



niary wants became very pressing ; more so than 
at any other period of his life. On one occasion, 
as he used to narrate the event, he was in his 
studio, reflecting with a feeling of almost desper- 
ation upon his condition. His conscience seemed 
to tell him that he had deserved his afflictions, and 
drawn them upon himself, by his want of due 
gratitude for past favors from heaven. His heart 
seemed filled at once with the hope that God 
would listen to his prayers, if he would offer up 
direct expressions of penitence, and ask for Divine 
aid. He accordingly locked the door of his room, 
withdrew to a corner, threw himself on his knees, 
and prayed for a loaf of bread for himself and 
wife. While thus employed a knock was heard 
at the door. A feeling of momentary shame at 
being detected in this position, induced him to 
hasten and open the door. A stranger inquired 
for Mr. Allston. He was anxious to learn who 
was the fortunate purchaser of the painting, 
Angel Uriel; regarded by the artist as one of 
his masterpieces, and which had won the prize at 
the exhibition of the Academy. He was told that 
it had not been sold. 

" Not sold ! " exclaimed the stranger ; " can it be 
possible! — where is it?" "In this very room," 
said Allston ; " here it is. It is for sale ; but its 
value has never yet, to my idea of its worth, been 
adequately appreciated, and I would not part 



278 



LIFE'S PB0BLE31S. 



with it." " What is its price ? " "I have done 
affixing any nominal sum ; I leave it to you to 
name the price." " Will four hundred pounds be 
an adequate recompense?" "It is more than I 
have ever asked for it." " Then the painting is 
mine," said the stranger ; and he introduced him- 
self as the Marquis of Stafford, and became from 
that moment one of the warmest friends of Mr. 
Allston. By him Mr. Allston was introduced to 
the society of the nobility and gentry, and he 
became one of the most favored among the many 
gifted minds that adorned the circle, in which he 
w r as never fond of appearing often. The instan- 
taneous relief thus afforded by the liberality of 
this noble visitor, was always regarded by All- 
ston as a direct answer to his prayer, and it made 
a deep impression on his mind. To this event he 
was ever after wont to attribute the increase of 
devotional feelings, which became a permanent 
trait in his character. 

The sceptical explanation of this incident is the 
ever handy and threadbare one, — "it happened 
so." Mr. Allston chanced to pray for help just 
as the stranger came to his door ; and the stran- 
ger chanced to decide to purchase the picture 
when Allston was in his greatest need. The 
credulity of scepticism is something to be won- 
dered at ! 

To my own mind it is obvious that by this inci- 



PRAYER. 



279 



dent two important objects were accomplished. 
The first was purely secular, — relief of Mr. All- 
ston's immediate wants, the opening of a wider 
scope and an adequate reward for his great 
genius. The second had regard to his prepara- 
tion for heaven. This the Lord always has in 
view in making his bestowments upon the needy. 

THE CASE OF CALEB. 

Dr. Joseph Stennet, for several years pastor of 
a church at Abergavenny, Wales, relates that 
there was a poor man, a regular attendant upon 
his ministry, who was generally known by the 
name of Caleb, He walked eight miles every 
Sunday to hear the doctor. But there was a se- 
vere snow and frost one winter which lasted 
several weeks, and blocked up his way so that he 
could not pass without danger, neither could he 
work to support his family. His friends became 
concerned lest they should perish from want. 
But as soon as the frost was broken Caleb ap- 
peared again. 

The doctor spied him and said : " O Caleb, how 
glad I am to see you again ! How have you done 
during the severe winter ? " 

" Never better in my life," said Caleb ; " I 
have not only had necessaries but lived upon 
dainties the whole time." 

He then told the doctor that one night after the 



280 



LIFE'S PBOBLEMS. 



commencement of the frost, they had eaten up all 
their stock of provisions, and had not one morsel 
left for the morning, nor any human possibility 
of getting any ; but he felt his mind composed. 
He went to prayer with his family and then to 
rest and slept soundly till morning — relying on 
God, who wanted neither means nor power to 
supply his wants. 

Before he was up he heard a knock at his door ; 
he went and saw a man standing with a horse 
loaded, who asked if his name was Caleb, and de- 
sired him to help take down the load. Caleb 
asked what it was. He said, provisions. On his 
inquiring who sent it, he said he believed God 
had sent it. When he came to examine the con- 
tents he was amazed at the quantity and variety 
of the articles ; enough, he said, to last through 
the frost, and some remained to the present time. 

Dr. Stennet made many inquiries for the 
person who assisted Caleb, but in vain. About 
two years afterward, while on a visit to Dr. Tal- 
bot, a noted physician of Herford, the mystery 
was cleared up. While conversing with the doc- 
tor on the efficacy of prayer, he mentioned the 
case of Caleb. 

" Caleb!" exclaimed Dr. Talbot, "I shall 
never forget him while I live." 

" What do you know of him ? " said Dr. Sten- 
net, 



PBAYEB. 



281 



" I had," said Dr. Talbot, " but little knowl- 
edge of him, but I know he must be the same 
man you mean." 

Dr. Talbot then related the following circum- 
stances : The summer before the hard winter, he 
was riding on horseback among the hills. At a 
certain place he observed a man preaching to a 
large number of people in a barn, and he stopped 
to listen to the sermon. He noticed one poor 
man who seemed very attentive, and who followed 
the preacher closely by turning to every passage 
he quoted. When the service was over the doctor 
walked his horse gently along, and the poor man 
whom he had noticed happened to walk by his 
side. The doctor asked him many questions about 
himself and family, and learned that his name 
was Caleb, and that he was a collier, living 
among the hills. 

He thought no more about him until the great 
frost came the following winter. One night, 
after he had retired to bed, he thought he heard 
a voice say, " Send provision to Caleb." 

He was startled at first, but soon concluded 
that it was a dream. It was not long before he 
heard the same words repeated, but louder and 
stronger. Then he awoke his wife, and told her 
what he had heard. She thought it was a dream 
and soon fell asleep again. 

But the doctor's mind was so impressed he 



282 



LIFE'S PROBLEMS. 



could not sleep. Again he heard the voice say- 
ing, powerfully, — " Get up and send provision 
to Caleb. 

He at once got up, called his man, and bade 
him bring his horse. He then went to his larder 
and stuffed a pair of panniers with whatever he 
could find ; and having assisted the man to load 
his horse, he bade him take the provision to 
Caleb." 

" Caleb, sir," said the man, " who is Caleb ? " 

" I know little of him," said the doctor, " but 
he is a collier and lives among the hills. Let 
the horse go and he will be sure to find him." 

The man seemed to be under the same influence 
as his master, which accounts for his telling Ca- 
leb, — " God sent it, I believe." 

This, of course, is testimony, but is it not a 
verification of Scripture, which says, — " This 
poor man cried unto the Lord, and He heard him 
and delivered him out of his troubles." Is not 
this promise a strong staff, when the poor and 
needy can testify to it ? 

CASE OF GEORGE MULLEK. 

The view of prayer thus illustrated led me, in 
1866, to visit George Midler, at Ashly Downs, 
Bristol, England. His Life of Trust had helped 
to lift me out of the ruts of sceptical rationalism, 
and confirm my faith in a God who lives, acts, 



PRAYER. 



283 



and loves to-day. But I would see and hear for 
myself, — the doubting Thomas that I was, — 
and what I saw and heard in Bristol and at Ashly 
Downs destroyed in me the last vestige of unbelief. 
I know I am not credulous, and I know I was not 
deceived. What I saw I saw clearly, and what I 
heard stood firmly on the feet of truth. What 
has been told in two large volumes, must here be 
condensed into a few brief paragraphs. 

I found at Ashly Downs four large substantially 
constructed stone buildings, surrounded with ele- 
gant grounds well kept, and two thousand or- 
phan children. The children were fed, clothed, 
schooled, taught some useful avocation, and in 
every way needful prepared for a practical life. 
And this, I was assured, was the result of one 
sole means — faith and prayer. No human being 
had been solicited to contribute a penny towards 
the purchase of the grounds, the erection and 
furnishing of the buildings, nor for the care, in- 
struction and maintenance of the orphans ; and 
the great establishment had no fund on which to 
rely should faith and prayer fail ! 

The initiation of what has been Mr. Midler's 
life-work began while he was a student in Ger- 
many preparing for the Lutheran ministry. 
Bible-reading led to his conversion to a life of 
trust, and to a determination to practically test 
the truth of God's promises. In pursuance of 



284 



LIFE'S PROBLEMS. 



this purpose he began his work for the orphans. 
Step by step he went forward, never for a moment 
swerving from his purpose ; and when he had de- 
termined on the establishment at Ashly Downs, 
he circulated no subscription papers, nor sent a 
single agent into the field to solicit funds. His 
sole appeal was to God. Contributions came as 
they were needed. God stood by his promise. 
" Daily," said Mr. Miiller, to me, "I lay the 
wants of the orphans before God, and He has 
never yet failed to grant the needed supply." 

Here, then, I saw a practical living proof that 
God is really "a prayer-hearing and prayer-an- 
swering God," — proof that meets the demand of 
seeing, hearing, knowing. Were this an isolated 
case, with not a single example ancient or modern 
to support it, one might justly doubt ; but this is 
not an isolated case. No less than twenty-six 
similar establishments, in Europe, and in the 
United States, are in like manner conducted and 
supported. I am sure that the reader will be 
enlightened, gratified and strengthened by the 
perusal of a work, in two volumes, entitled, The 
Charities of Europe, in which the story of these 
faith institutions is told. 

And now what has scepticism to say to this 
case of George Miiller's ? Its answer is simply 
contemptible ! A sceptical gentlemen, who re- 
fuses to be called " christian," though he wears 



PBAYEli. 



285 



the title of " Rev.," asserts that Miiller's success 
is due to a " system of ingenious advertising that 
might excite the envy of a new boot-black ; " and 
this shallow pretense is caught up and echoed far 
and wide as an adequate answer to Mr. Miiller. 

But an essential element is wanting in this 
statement to make it effective ; namely, — truth ! 
And if it were strictly true as to advertising, 
and unobjectionably courteous in style, it would 
fall far short of accounting for the remarkable 
phenomena at Ashly Downs. When and where 
has an " ingenious system of advertising " pro- 
duced more than two million dollars for the erec- 
tion and equipment of an immense orphan asy- 
lum, and for the education and daily support of 
ruany thousand orphan children — more than two 
thousand at one time ? When and where ? Let 
the place, time, and advertiser be named ! 

In no proper sense has Mr. Miiller advertised 
the needs of his asylum. He has sent out yearly 
reports of the results of his work ; but surely 
tfiey ought not to be characterized as advertise- 
ments. Of this sceptical explanation Mr. Miiller 
has taken notice. He says : " When did I ask 
for anything these many years the work has been 
going on? To whom did I make known our 
wants, except to those who are closely connected 
with the work ? Nay, so far from wishing to 
make known our needs, for the purpose of influ- 



286 



LIFE'S PBOBLEMS. 



encing benevolent persons to contribute to the 
necessities of the institution under my care, I 
have even refrained to let our circumstances be 
known, after having been asked about them; 
when, by simply saying we would be in need, I 
might have had considerable sums." 

Puerile, indeed, and unspeakably weak, the at- 
tempt to resolve the Ashly Downs Orphan Houses 
into thirty-five yearly reports ! Besides, Mr. 
Miiller has not always made a yearly report ! 

If polished scepticism, or cultivated paganism, 
has nothing better to offer in explanation of this 
stupendous modern miracle its case is indeed 
desperate ! 

If Mr. Miiller has discovered a method of 
building and supporting benevolent institutions 
without personal solicitation of money, without 
agents, and without an assured fund, why has not 
his method been adopted and applied elsewhere ? 
Why do not hospitals, asylums, churches, depend, 
for means to equip and sustain them, on yearly 
reports of their work and needs, widely circu^ 
lated ! The answer is obvious, — they would not 
succeed if adopted, and common sense would 
repudiate such a method. 

Is it not clearly in consonance with reason, 
revelation, and experience, that Faith, Prayer, 
and Works, furnish the only adequate explana- 
tion of the case of George Miiller ? 



PR A YEB. 



287 



CASE OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 

Abraham Lincoln was, in many respects, a re- 
markable man. He was endowed with a com- 
manding intellect that was developed into many 
fantastic oddities, but from it flowed a stream of 
the strongest and purest common sense. He was 
a great wit and an inveterate joker, but under- 
neath lay a strata of the most profound serious- 
ness and fervent piety. He belonged to no 
church, and made no profession of religion ; but 
he believed in the living God, and in his ever- 
living and ever-acting Providence. Although an 
abolitionist from conviction, he did not feel that 
in his capacity of President of the United States 
he had any right to meddle with slavery. When 
the rebellion came, he was earnestly petitioned by 
the old abolition leaders to emancipate the slaves 
— both on principle and policy — but he steadily 
refused. Disaster followed disaster, defeat suc- 
ceeded defeat, until the North was in despair. 
Mr. Lincoln himself felt that the sin of slavery 
was the great obstacle to the success of the Union 
arms. But still he held back. Pope was de- 
feated not far from Washington, and Lee invaded 
Pennsylvania. The Capitol was in terror. Then 
Mr. Lincoln went in earnest prayer to God, and 
with him he made solemn covenant. What fol- 
lowed is related by Dr. Holland in his Life of 
Lincoln : 



288 LIFE'S PBOBLEMS. 



" The battle of Antietam was fought, and Lee 
was driven back across the Potomac. The news 
reached Mr. Lincoln at the Soldier's Home. He 
immediately returned to Washington, called a 
meeting of his cabinet, and laid before them 
a draft of an emancipation proclamation that 
should give liberty to four million slaves. Mem- 
bers of the cabinet demurred. He was solicited 
to withhold the measure — at least for a season, 
But Mr. Lincoln was steadfast in his purpose to 
issue the proclamation. To Mr. Chase he said : 
4 1 dare not withhold it. I have made a vow to 
God!' 

" 6 Did I understand you ? ' said Mr. Chase. 
Then Mr. Lincoln said to all present : ' I made 
a solemn vow before God that if Gen. Lee should 
be driven from Pennsylvania I would crown the 
result by the declaration of the freedom of the 
slaves.' He kept his vow ; and from that hour 
the nation's courage and the nation's cause re- 
vived. All over the civilized world there was a 
consciousness that God's will had been done." 

That these simple narratives are strictly in line 
with the Bible narratives and promises, no one can 
fail to perceive. And we now know that Chris- 
tendom is full of such facts — as well authenti- 
cated by unimpeachable testimony as any facts in 
current history. But the crowning proof must 



PBAYEB. 



289 



be one's personal experience. That was Christ's 
rule. Try my doctrine, He said, and ye shall 
know whether it be of God or of man. For the 
last ten years I have applied this test to the doc- 
trine of God's constant providence, — alas, with 
many imperfections and limitations, — and to-day 
I gladly bear testimony that he is, as he has ever 
been, " a prayer-hearing and a prayer-answering 
God." In an age of such widespread and intense 
scepticism, I feel it my solemn duty to give this 
testimony. 

Other difficulties, urged against this doctrine 
of prayer, will be dealt with in the chapter fol- 
lowing. 



PARADOX. 



Cromwell's habit of prayer is a notable feature of him. All 
his great enterprises, were commenced with prayer. In dark 
inextricable looking difficulties, his officers and he used to as- 
semble and pray alternately for hours, for days, until some 
definite resolution rose among them, some " door of hope," as 
they would name it, disclosed itself. Consider that !— Hero- 
Worship. 

Wouldst thou rather be a peasant's son that knew, were it 
never so rudely, that there was a God in heaven and in man; or 
a duke's son that only knew that there were two and thirty 
quarters on the family coach ?— Sartor Eesartus. 



CHAPTER XIX. 



PABADOX. 

In the last chapter I discussed four proposi- 
tions relative to prayer, together with the diffi- 
culties which they are supposed to involve. In 
the present chapter I propose to treat the remain- 
ing propositions, Mr. Tyndall's dictum of science, 
and the famous prayer guage. 

I do not feel logically bound to take the reader 
behind the curtain and show to him the machinery 
of the Divine Providence, and explain in every 
supposable case precisely how it acts. It should 
be borne in mind that general laws are about all 
we are permitted to know, and that an exact 
knowledge of their minutia is not attainable. 
Nevertheless, I shall endeavor to treat the reader's 
difficulties with entire frankness. 

And yet, what have I to do with difficulties, 
origins, modes, when I have in my possession 
undeniable facts ! It is an undeniable fact that 
prayer is instinctive, — that God has encouraged 
men to pray by promising that He will hear and 



294 



LIFE' 8 PROBLEMS. 



answer prayer, — that God has heard and an- 
swered prayer in manifold instances. For all 
practical purposes, ought not facts to be sufficient ? 
Can the scientist explain the origin and mode of 
all facts and laws of which he has knowledge ? 
He cannot ; nor does he pretend to. Why, then, 
should I meddle with seeming paradox ? Never- 
theless I did ; and I sympathize with the desire 
of the honest sceptic to get as near to the bottom 
facts as he possibly can. 

1. I have affirmed that prayer reaches and 
affects God. This is implied by the assertion 
that God has heard and answered prayer. But 
the question is at once suggested, — by what 
means, or through what medium does prayer 
reach and affect God ? Numberless prayers, the 
world over, are being offered every minute of 
time, and in hundreds of different languages and 
dialects of languages, and it seems impossible that 
God should hear them all, and answer e ven one in 
a million. It is a vast subject, and I confess I ap- 
proach it with awe. 

Elsewhere I have maintained that, one char- 
acteristic of God is absolute intelligence. Abso- 
lutely intelligent, He must know ; cannot help 
knowing ! If the 1,400,000,000 of human beings 
now upon the earth were at once to offer prayer 
to God, He would hear each one, and know pre- 
cisely what was said. He is the auricle of the 



PABADOX. 



295 



universe. Yea, more : He is the nervous system 
of the universe. Every part, and every atom of 
the universe is charged with the vitality of God ; 
and he is infinitely more sensitive than the most 
delicate nerve in the human body. If this were 
not so, then matter, and all forms of matter would 
be a sheer impossibility ; for by reason of the 
presence of the vitality of God in matter, matter 
is! 

The nervous system of a human being is de- 
veloped into such minuteness of parts, and the 
vitality is so perfect, that the prick of the finest 
needle point at the extremity of the body is in- 
stantly reported to the brain. And were the 
number of needle pricks increased by any con- 
ceivable addition, each one, in like manner would 
be reported. Is God less sensitive to all that 
transpires within the sphere of his vitality ? The 
Absolute granted, can anything be hidden from 
the absolute knowledge ? 

The telegrapher sends a message through thou- 
sands of miles of wire, simply by the agitation or 
displacement of a few molecules of matter by the 
action of his instrument on the electric current. 
Is God less sensitive than the electric current, 
and the atomic structure of the wire ? 

Scientists tell us that the slightest agitation of 
the atmosphere is felt at its remotest boundary. 
Nay, more : We are assured that we cannot lift 



296 



LIFE'S PROBLEMS. 



a finger without affecting, by some imperceptible 
degree, the distant spheres ; nor utter a sound 
without undulating the depths of space. If mat- 
ter, in its lower forms and organisms, is so im- 
pressible, is He who created and organized all 
forms of matter less impressible ? 

Ultimates are built on leasts. A single brick 
would be no adequate specimen of the architect- 
ure of a house ; but it might be a fair sample of 
the material of which the house was built. Man 
is a miniature universe, and all that may be 
known of God may, by wise application, be dis- 
covered in man. While sitting here at my desk, 
thinking out and writing this chapter, several 
persons near by are engaged in conversation. I 
pursue my train of thought, put it carefully on 
paper, and, at the same time not only hear all 
that is being said, but understand what is meant. 
How, then, can it be a difficult thing for the 
infinite and unlimited God to hear the prayers of 
all his children who appeal to him " in spirit and 
in truth?" 

The least involves the greatest ; and from man 
to God, from the known to the knowable the 
line is clear. On the sensorium of the universe 
every articulate cry of all God's creatures is 
reported and registered, and none cry in vain. 
" All creatures cry unto Him, and He giveth 
them their meat in due season." But not until 



PABADOX. 



297 



we realize God as the absolute — in every con- 
ceivable respect — shall we understand, even in 
the slightest degree, how he is reached and 
affected by prayer. 

2. But how about answers to contradictory 
prayers ? Two persons, or two parties, pray with 
equal sincerity for opposite results ; — as in the 
case of the North and South during the rebellion. 
The prayers of both could not be ansv^red, at 
the same time, according to their terms. It was 
inevitable that one or the other should be disap- 
pointed. 

To which I reply : Intelligent prayer implies 
submission to the Divine will and wisdom. On 
other terms, prayer is simply absurd ! A case 
carried up to the Supreme Court, implies confi- 
dence in its judgment, and a willingness to abide 
by the result. So Jesus prayed : " not as I will 
but as Thou wilt. " He taught his disciples to 
pray ; " Thy will be clone ! " 

It is a respectful state of the mind — it is an 
indispensable condition to a favorable hearing — 
that we have the utmost confidence in the wisdom 
and goodness of Him to whom we pray. Prayer 
has its laws — as well as the revolution of a 
planet in its orbit. If we be obedient to those 
laws we shall obtain a favorable hearing ; if we 
be disobedient, the result will be precisely the 
same as if we should disobey any other law. 



298 



LIFE'S PBOBLEMS. 



The result of our prayers, in any case, must, with 
child-like confidence, be left with God ; with the 
conviction that His way is always the right way. 
Sometimes the answer seems delayed ; sometimes 
it comes in a way unexpected ; sometimes it 
comes not at all. I have had experiences, when 
no answer came to my prayer that I could iden- 
tify, that the result was better than I had asked 
for, or even thought. " Commit thy way unto 
the Lord ; trust also in him ; and he shall bring 
it to pass." This, surely, is the dictate of right 
reason. 

Some persons are perplexed with the assur- 
ance that God 44 knows what we have need of 
before we ask him." Why then ask ? they query. 

Here, again, the relation of parent and child 
should be carefully studied and understood. The 
regulations and commands of a wise parent, will 
have reference to the education of his child, both 
for time and eternity. The most impressive les- 
sons will relate to the duty of obedience, confi- 
dence and trust. Granted that the parent knows 
what his child needs without being told. What 
then ? Are obedience, confidence, and trust less 
indispensable and beautiful in the formation of 
character fitted for earth and for heaven ? Who 
does not know that, without these elements of 
character, a sound and symmetrical manhood 
and womanhood would be impossible ? The re- 



PARADOX. 



299 



lation of husband and wife, friend and friend, 
citizen and citizen, would be impossible. Society, 
the church, the family, the state would be im- 
possible ! 

Is not a sense of dependence also necessary to 
the tenderest relation between parent and child ? 
Is it not fruitful of many of the virtues? Are 
not obedience, attachment, love, begotten of it? 
Had man no sense of dependence, he would 
neither love, serve, nor obey God from any motive 
but that of fear. He would trust wholly to his 
own judgment, give way to pride, arrogance, 
and selfishness, and soon be " of all men the most 
miserable." 

Now God has fated us — except in some vague 
outlines and intuitions — to blindness to the 
future. This He has done with infinite kindness, 
that we may lean upon Him and trust Him in all 
things; to the end that heavenly love may be 
developed in our hearts, and the fondest attach- 
ment, and the closest and sweetest possible relation 
be established between Him and ourselves. He 
commands, therefore — "Ask, and ye shall re- 
ceive," — " Cast your care upon Him, for He careth 
for you," — " Call upon the Lord in the day of 
trouble and He shall deliver thee." He also gives 
us the assurance that, — "All tilings work to- 
gether for good to those ivho love the Lord." 

I am sure that, as a loving father delights to 



300 



LIFE'S PBOBLEMS. 



have a good or penitent son ask for the very 
things he knows he needs, so God, our heavenly 
Father is pleased to have his children ask for 
the things u He knoweth we have need of before 
we ask Him." I am sure that he is better pleased 
with the affectionate child, who asks fearlessly, 
and trusts in his wisdom and goodness, than he 
is with the cold and sullen child who never asks, 
but takes everything for granted, and never says 

— " thank you." To go to God in prayer, in 
every circumstance of life, is, at least, one mile- 
stone on the road to heaven ! 

4. Sometimes it is objected, — " Is not God un- 
changeable ? How then can prayer effect him ? " 

— Surely, God is unchangeable ; and no intelli- 
gent person expects to change Him by prayer* 
The law of doing, being, and having, is irrevocable ; 
and so too is the law of asking and receiving. 
God has suspended on effort all beneficial re- 
sults. The hand of toil must be applied to the 
earth before it will yield its bounties. God has 
provided the stream, but genius and industry 
must utilize it. He who will not work, shall 
want. He who will not learn, shall be ignorant. 
God provides possibilities, but He does not manu- 
facture them into uses. " He maketh his sun to 
rise upon the evil and upon good, and sendeth his 
rain upon the just and upon the unjust ;" but it 
is ours to utilize both sun and rain if we would 



PABADOX. 



301 



be benefited by them. Throughout the material 
realm this is law. That the earth yields its fruits 
to the hand of industry, is not that God is change- 
able, but unchangeable. " Draw nigh unto God, 
and He will draw nigh unto you." That is law ! 

" If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, 
ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done 
unto you." That is law f And God is as un- 
changeable in the higher realm of spirit as He is 
in the lower material realm. Prayer is simply 
obedience to law. That is maris part ! An- 
swers to prayer are simply obedience to law. 
That is God's part ! 

5, And yet the frivolous question is sometimes 
asked, — "If a man should pray, and do nothing 
to secure the favor prayed for, might he expect a 
favorable answer to his prayer ? " Most certainly 
not. We are blind, and ignorant as to what 
would be best for us ; and " we know not what 
we should pray for, as we ought." Rom. viii. 26. 
Therefore it is indispensable that we work as well 
as pray. We are assured that, — "Faith with- 
out works is dead ! " If we ask God for light, 
or to show us the way in our material perplexi- 
ties, having perfect confidence in God we should 
not cease to work, but work the harder. Prayer 
is not for sceptical fault-finding idlers, but for 
believing workers, who, like Cromwell's men, 
pray and fight at the same time. 



302 



LIFE' 8 PBOBLEMS. 



6. And here we encounter the famous English 
scientist, Mr. John Tyndall. He seeks to block 
all argument, whether derived from history or 
personal experience, by the interposition of 
science. He assures us that " science asserts 
that no act of humiliation, individual or na- 
tional, can call one shower from heaven, or de- 
flect toward us a single beam of the sun." In 
other words, prayer is impotent to effect anything 
in the sphere of physics. Days of humiliation,, 
fasting, and prayer, are a broad farce. Practically? 
prayer is useless. 

If this be true, it is a truth that has a very 
wide bearing. The historical statements in the 
Bible, that God has heard and answered prayer, 
must be given up as false. The promises, which 
in the Bible are numerous, that God will hear 
and answer prayer that conforms to the conditions 
on which the promises are based, must also he 
given up. The testimony of individuals that 
their prayers have been answered, is nothing less 
than a delusive falsehood. In fact, if Mr. Tyn- 
dall's statement be true, it effectually closes the 
discussion, and there is nothing more to be said. 

But declining to be dismissed thus summarily, I 
will venture to inquire, — Does "science" so as- 
sert ? And further, — whose " science ? " Are 
all scientists agreed in this assertion ? And how 
does " science " know that this is true ? Has 



PABADOX. 



303 



u science " exhausted with its researches the field 
of possibilities lying between earth and heaven ? 
Has it guaged the power, wisdom, and goodness 
of God ? Has it dropped its plummet down 
the Infinite, and sounded its resources ? Has 
u science " heard of One " who weigheth the 
mountains in scales, and the dust in balances, 
aud taketh up the isles as a very little thing ? " — 
of One who "giveth power to the faint, and to 
them who have no might he increaseth strength?" 
Has " science " only heard of one who cannot 
send at will " a single shower from heaven, nor 
deflect toward us a single beam of the sun ; " be- 
cause, forsooth, he has tied his own hands ? Has 
" science" erected an altar, bearing this inscrip- 
tion, — To the impotent God ! — and is it unlaw- 
ful to worship at any other? 

These questions are provoked by Mr. Tyndall's 
confident assertion ; and who shall say that they 
are not germane? The prime difficulty with 
sceptical scientists seem to be — when discussing 
questions that do not properly belong to the la- 
boratory — that they exclude from their processes 
the chief factor in the universe, — God ! 

My reply to Mr. Tyndall is, that the earth, that 
the universe, is a thing created. It had a Crea- 
tor, it had a beginning, and is presided over by 
infinite power, wisdom, and love. All force, 
therefore, is God-force — is spiritual force; and 



304 



LIFE'S PBOBLEMS. 



its manifestation through material forms does not 
change its intrinsic character. The assertion that 
"neither individual or national humiliation can 
call one shower from heaven, or deflect towards 
us a single beam of the sun," is sheer nonsense. 
Does it lie with the clay to tell the potter what 
he can or cannot do ? Shall the clay admonish 
the potter that he cannot do this, or that, because 
of the "uniformity" of his laws ; or because he 
has hound himself with routine ? If to keep his 
word, or to meet an emergency, it be necessary to 
" send one shower from heaven, or deflect toward 
us a single beam of the sun ; " if this be neces- 
sary in answer to the cry of his penitent children, 
I am bold to say that reason asserts that it will 
be done ! — whatever " science " shall presume to 
assert to the contrary. A God so foolish as to 
tie his hands with his own laws, or to become a 
half-imbecile victim of routine, is just no God at 
all, and there is neither thinkable nor unthinkable 
place in the universe for him. 

The French astronomer Arago has well said : 
" He who, outside of pure mathematics, pro- 
nounces the word impossible, lacks prudence ! " 
Outside of pure mathematics, and of abstract and 
intuitive truth, one should be cautious how they 
affirm what God can do, or cannot do, — what is 
possible, and what is impossible, — especially if 
the effect would be to limit the Absolute, and 



PABADOX. 



305 



give up the Almighty, bound hand and foot, to 
the mastery of His works ! 

7. " Every intelligent defender of prayer," says 
Dr. M'Cosh, " has allowed a becoming sovereignty 
of God in answering the petitions presented to him." 
In answering prayer, God has (to speak after the 
manner of men) to weigh a thousand circum- 
stances, including the character of the men who 
pray, and the spirit in which they pray, and what 
they pray for. A few years ago thousands were 
praying for the recovery of President Garfield, 
but their prayers were of no avail. After his 
death it was strongly asserted that he fell a vic- 
tim to malpractice, and that he might have been 
saved had he been in skillful hands. But, either 
for his own good, or for the nation's good, or for 
some other purpose of good, God did not choose 
to have the result otherwise than what it was. 
He might have influenced a change of physicians, 
or a change of treatment; He might have an- 
swered the prayers of his petitioners favorably ; 
but He did not. Shall we say that God knew 
nothing about the President's sickness ? — or that 
he knew all about it, but was indifferent as to the 
result ? — or that, in any case, prayer is of no 
avail ? Does any intelligent man pray, with an 
unwillingness to leave the issue with God ? 
Would a wise and good parent laugh at his 
child's request because of the child's willingness 



306 



LIFE'S PBOBLEMS. 



to defer to his superior judgment ; and would he 
pronounce asking a foolishness ? — especially, if 
he had said to his child, " Ask, and ye shall re- 
ceive." 

8. In 1872, it was proposed, by an anonymous 
writer in the Contemporary Review, to settle the 
question, whether prayer can be made to produce 
positive results in the realm of physics, by a cru- 
cial test ; and thus, in fact, practically take the 
question of prayer out of debate. It was pro- 
posed that a ward in some hospital be set apart 
for the treatment of disease, not with medicine, 
but with prayer ; and that the results produced 
by the prayer-men should, after a sufficient lapse 
of time, be compared with the results produced 
by the medical-men in some other ward of the 
same hospital. This proposition was sent to the 
Contemporary by Prof. Tyndall, and had his ap- 
proval. 

I remember that the crudity of this proposed 
test, while it provoked me to laughter, astonished 
me with the depth of ignorance it revealed. I 
felt inclined to exclaim, — " Shoemaker, stick to 
thy last ! " 

The theologues, generally, received the proposal 
with indignant protest ; and Prof. Tyndall pa- 
thetically complained, that, " It seems impossible 
to devise a mode of verification of their theory 
which does not arouse resentment in theological 



PABADOX. 



307 



minds," — " that while the pleasure of the scien- 
tific man culminates in the demonstrated har- 
mony between theory and fact, the highest pleas- 
ure of the religious man has been already tested 
in the very act of praying, prior to verification, 
and any further effort in this direction is a mere 
disturbance of his peace." 

There is a measure of truth in this indictment ; 
but the proposition is an absurd one, and the 
answer to it is obvious : 

1. It is certain that Christ declined to work 
miracles simply as a test of his ability to work 
them, or to gratify the wonder-seeking spirit of 
the Jews ; and yet he was able to heal the sick, 
restore the blind and the lame, and raise the dead. 
His wonderful works were done for ends of good, 
and not for display. Did Professor Tyndall, and 
his anonymous friend, propose their prayer-test 
with the sincere hope that something might come 
of it beneficial to their souls ? — something that 
would be helpful to their " growth in grace and a 
knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ?" — some- 
thing that would promote in them genuine piety 
— the fear of God and the love of man ? If 
they had not these ends in view, or something 
like them, what benefit did they expect to accrue 
to themselves from the proposed test ; supposing 
it should prove successful? Is not the propo- 
sition simply an echo from the wilderness of 



308 



LIFE'S PBOBLEMS. 



Judea, where it is said a certain notorious per- 
sonage demanded a test of our Saviour, saying — 
" Command that these stones be made bread?" 

2. The proposition to test the Almighty, on 
any other terms than those he has attached to 
his promises to hear and to answer prayer, sounds 
strangely grotesque and impertinent. In truth, 
it is impertinent — if not something worse — to 
presume to test God at all. It is impossible that 
the Absolute should lie. Why then propose to 
question his veracity, and cite him to your 
judgment-seat ? Faith and obedience on the part 
of him who prays, and on the part of the objeet 
of prayer — where these conditions are practically 
possible — are indispensable to a successful re- 
sult. Christ performed no miraculous cures on 
stubborn unbelievers. The subject always had 
faith that Christ could work the cure that was 
sought. The sisters of Lazarus had faith. Blind 
Bartimus had faith. The ruler had faith ; and 
in nearly every instance the healing act was ac- 
companied with the assurance, — "Thy faith has 
made thee whole," — or its equivalent, — " Thy 
sins are forgiven thee; go in peace." It is said 
that Christ, when at a certain place, could not do 
many mighty works " because of their unbelief." 
If Professor Tyndall and his friend had ordinary 
Christian confidence in the Bible, and a fair ac- 
quaintance with its contents, they would not have 



PABADOX. 



309 



proposed their crude and ill-devised test. Any 
tolerably well-informed Christian would be cer- 
tain to detect the ignorance as well as the scepti- 
cism that devised it, and cast it aside as mere 
rubbish. 

3. But suppose a test of the efficacy of prayer 
were rationally allowable on the " prayer-gauge " 
terms, or their equivalent, what right has any one 
now to propose a test. The historical fact that 
God has heard and answered prayer, makes fur- 
ther test unnecessary! Is the truth of history 
questioned? Very well; the burden of proof 
rests on those who deny. Those who believe the 
testimony of both sacred and profane history can 
afford to await the proof ; for they know perfectly 
well that no fact is better attested than that God 
has promised, and that He has faithfully kept His 
word. They know, too, that any test however 
rigid, and though perfectly successful, would 
avail nothing with scientific sceptics. They 
would at once try to explain it away, or relegate 
it to the region of the unknowable, and be as 
sceptical and unbelieving as ever. History justi- 
fies this conclusion. Said Christ to the Jews, — 
"If ye believe not Moses and the prophets, neither 
will ye believe though one rose from the dead." 
Jesus did rise from the dead, and the Jews con- 
tinued as sceptical as before ! 

4. The proposed experiment is otherwise faulty. 



310 



LIFE'S PBOBLEMS. 



It contains an assumption that renders it worth- 
less as a test. It assumes that cures effected, 
apparently, by medical men, are solely due to 
medicine and skill. But is that true? What 
experienced medical man claims as much? Has 
the Providence of God nothing whatever to do 
with the recovery of the sick? Is God wholly 
withdrawn from the sick-room and the hospital? 

Are the sick left wholly to human skill ? If 
God has even the least to do with their recovery 
or non-recovery, who shall decide how much? 
For the test to be of any value, God must be 
supposed to be present in the prayer-ward, and 
altogether absent from the medical-ward ! If 
prayer should succeed on the one hand, and med- 
icine and doctors on the other, controversy would 
be inevitable as to how much was due to what is 
called Nature, how much to drugs, how much to 
nursing, how much to prayer, and how much to 
God ! The honest sceptic, I fancy, must be dis- 
gusted with his own proposition ! 

5. Touching this whole controversy President 
McCosh has well said : "I believe that the time 
has come when the intelligent public must in- 
timate pretty decisively that those who have 
excelled in physical experiments are not therefore 
fitted to discuss philosophical or religious ques- 
tions. Persons who do not follow the appropriate 
method in physical science will not be rewarded 



PABADOX. 



311 



by discoveries. Those who decline coming to 
God believing that He is, and that He is a re- 
warder of them that diligently seek Him, need 
not expect the blessings of religion. Professor 
Tyndall has faith in the ordinances of nature, and 
he and those who read his works have profited 
by it. I have no evidence that he has studied so 
carefully the method of earning fruit in the 
kingdom of grace, as in the kingdom of nature. 
But of this I am sure, that with a like faith in 
God, in His providence and word, as he has in 
science, he will reap a yet greater and more en- 
during reward." 

The method by which I disposed of the great 
subject of praj^er, — at least to my own satisfac- 
tion, — is now before the reader. But, again I 
say, the supreme proof must be sought for in ex- 
periment and experience. Let no one dream that 
without a good life prayer will be of the least 
avail ! But when the heart is filled with love to 
God and love to man ; when our confidence and 
trust are like a little child's ; when faith domi- 
nates the soul ; then prayer rolls its thought- 
waves beyond the stars and beats against the 
great white throne ; and were we to " pray the 
Father to presently give more than ten legions of 
angels " to assist and defend us, they would be 
given ! (Matt. xxvi. 52, 53.) Nor would any- 



312 



LIFE'S PBOBLEMS. 



tiling, absolutely needed for our earthly and 
heavenly life, be withheld. But not for evil uses 
or ends ; not for personal selfishness ; not for 
aggrandizement, will God give us anything. The 
jewelled key of faith and works is the only one 
that can unlock the treasury of God. 



CONCLUSION. 



O sacred Providence, who from end to end, 
Strongly and sweetly movest! Shall I write, 

And not of Thee, through whome my lingers bend 
To hold my quill : shall they not do Thee right? 

Of all Thy creatures, both in sea and land, 
Only to man Thou hast made known Thy wayes, 

And put the penne alone into his hand, 
And made him secretarie of Thy praise. 

— George Herbert. 



I am apt to think the man 
That could surmount the sum of things, and spy 
The heart of God, and secrets of His empire, 
Would speak hut love. With him the bright result 
Would change the hue of intermediate scenes, 
And make one thing of all theology. 

— Gambold. 



CHAPTER XX. 



CONCLUSION. 

My task is done. The story of my intellectual 
and spiritual travail from Doubt to Faith is told. 
The discussions upon which I proposed to enter 
when I began, are finished. My record is made 
up, and I shall not be afraid to meet it when I 
shall have passed over to the great majority. 

I have brought forward the most important 
and the most difficult questions in theology and 
philosophy, and subjected them to a purely ra- 
tional treatment. In no single instance have I 
appealed to authority — in Bible or Church — to 
sustain or enforce my conclusions. My sole re- 
liance has been on pure reason and historical fact. 
If occasionally I have cited texts of scripture, it 
was simply to show the harmony of the evidence. 
I have thus endeavored to meet the sceptic on the 
one hand and the christian on the other. 

I am convinced that a stubbornly sceptical at- 
titude of mind is a great misfortune. The curse 
of the modern Christian church is scepticism. 



316 



LIFE'S PBOBLEMS. 



The old creeds are fading out, and too often 
Christianity is identified with the creeds. As a 
consequence the churches are honeycombed with 
unbelief, and the people are not fed. If God 
with thunderbolts and an endless gehenna is a 
mistake, they seriously ask, — is there a God ? 
If the future life is not a scene of devastated 
family circles and broken ties, they plead, — is 
there a future life? What is the meaning of 
Scripture texts so long used to support these 
theories, if they have not been correctly under- 
stood ? Is the Bible a truthful book ? Of secret 
doubt and untold difficulty, all along these lines, 
there is a vast amount. For the most part the 
pulpit is silent, and for the most part the pulpit 
does not know what to say. Is it to be wondered 
at that the churches are thinly attended? That 
the pews are only partially filled? Is it not 
time to look at Christianity as represented by 
the Bible, from a different standpoint, and see if 
it has not a side in strict harmony with educated 
reason and conscience, and in no wise contradic- 
tory of any known fact or law ? 

I have endeavored to show that Christianity 
has such a side. I am a christian — at least 
technically — but it is because my reason has 
made me one. If my faith is not rational, it is 
nothing. But I am in no bondage to a system. 
My christian convictions are in accord with all 



CONCLUSION. 



317 



else I know. They present no obstacle to my 
liberty of faith or research. I would therefore 
make the reader a christian on the terms that I 
am one. 

What more remains for me to say? Nothing. 
I am at rest. My faith has made me whole. The 
incidents of this mortal life have for me no terror. 
Old age has no terror. Death has no terror. I 
now know that the present, every moment of it, is 
under the superintendence of an all-wise Father, 
even to the minutest particular ; and the future 
stretches out into inconceivable realms of light 
and joy. 1 can confidently say with the old pa- 
triarch, — " Even though He slay me, yet will I 
trust in Him ! " To induce this heavenly trust, 
and to fix it firmly on rational grounds, has been 
the one great aim of these discussions of the 
great Problems of Life and Spirit. 



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